Students at Edward Stone Middle School were delighted on Oct. 30 to find a tasty surprise awaiting them in the cafeteria at lunchtime.
In addition to the nachos, tater tots, salad and kiwi being served up for lunch, students were able to sample four other food items that had yet to appear on the school lunch menu: chicken alfredo, taco burritos, chicken fillet sandwiches, and chicken enchilada empanadas.
Those items will start being added to the food menu in January and February, taking the place of some less popular foods.
The tasting was set up by Kelly Pfeifer, who took on the role of kitchen manager this year following the retirement of George Houlton.
“I thought how fun would it be to have the kids kind of put their word out there of what they like, because they change, they eat differently, and if there’s something I can put out there that they’re going to eat, why not have a say in it?” Pfeifer said.
The students were enthusiastic about the taste testing, and were excited to be able to give their feedback.
“They loved it!” said Ed Stone school nurse Kathryn Menke, who surveyed students in their classrooms after lunch. “It was fun, tasty, and they loved that they felt they had a voice and someone was wanting their opinion. They were very excited talking about it.”
Little did they know that Pfeifer has been taking into account students’ opinions about school meals for some time. Her daughter, who is a student at BHS, often shows her food review videos posted by her classmates on social media.
“There’s a couple videos out there where the kids are rating my food, and I just find that so cute and it’s great feedback,” Pfeifer said. “I love interacting with the kids.”
Pfeifer values the input and keeps it in mind while looking for new things to offer.
School food items have been somewhat restricted over the past several years due to changes in nutrition rules and guidelines, but, Pfeifer said, vendors are catching up with these guidelines and expanding their offerings accordingly.
“More of the food vendors now are coming and leaning more toward us to help us with those restrictions like meeting our grains, the lower sodium,” Pfeifer said.
She’s eager to spice up the menu, having already gotten started with the addition of pizza crunchers, bagel bites, and, on Halloween, chicken nuggets in the shape of bats.
“Surprisingly when I had the Halloween bat nuggets, high school kids just loved them,” Pfeifer said. “At their age, I didn’t think they’d really care, but they just loved them and they were rating them.”
Other changes haven’t gone unnoticed by students.
“I just wanted to take a minute to truly thank you and tell you how much me and the other students of BHS are appreciating the changes you are bringing to the lunch menu,” sophomore Ian Steward wrote in an email sent to Supervisor of Technology and Food Services Vida Long. “I have truly enjoyed some of the new menu items added and I think it’s very nice to have new items beside the ones we have had since kindergarten.”
Pfeifer also is working to bring back some of the offerings that were put on pause by the pandemic, such as hot breakfast, which is available twice weekly at BHS and may be expanded to other schools in the future. She’s also looking to bring back the high school’s a la carte items as early as February. Those items will not be included in the free meals that students receive but may be purchased via student lunch accounts.
Long commended Pfeifer’s work in her new role.
“She has a LOT of food service pride,” Long said. “I love how passionate Kelly is about her job and her love of serving our Grayhounds quality food. She’s a gem.”
Pfeifer has been with the district for 10 years, starting as a server at Sunnyside Elementary School and moving around to different schools as needed before taking the lead position at Grimes Elementary School. She remained there for five years before moving to the bakery at James Madison Education Center. From there, she became lead satellite, taking care of food orders and getting them out to the other elementary, intermediate and middle schools.
Her passion for the food industry began at an early age as she helped her parents in the kitchen at Hotel Nauvoo, where her father was the head chef and her mother was his assistant.
“I was always in the kitchen with them, especially at the hotel,” Pfeifer said.
She commended the kitchen staff at all of the schools for their hard work and support, and she looks forward to continuing to try new items for students to try. Students are looking forward to it, too.
“Please keep the new options coming,” Steward said. “We love getting to try all the new lunches.”
