By PAT SUMMERS Special Writer
Students at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart are destroying a time-honored custom: complaining about school food. By tradition, they should claim the school food’s awful, say they hate it and then get on with the business at hand.
Instead, on a recent Monday in the capacious dining hall, Stuart girls sounded like fledgling restaurant critics — all filing rave reviews.
Those who should take the deepest bows for Stuart’s successful lunch program — especially now, during National School Lunch Week — are Sandy Harkness, dining services director, and Damon Giancola, certified executive chef. Here for 10 and 9 years, respectively, they aim to help Stuart students make wise food choices and expand their palates.
This team plans the meals, then works with five dining services staffers to prepare them, and finally — the acid test — they monitor how the food is going down. But by now, they must know they have nothing to worry about.
In four well-behaved waves, Stuart students enter the dining hall for their 25-minute lunch. Kindergarten and first-grade girls are followed by middle school, then second to fifth graders, then young women in the upper school. Though individual differences abound, they seem to share a genuine enthusiasm for their school’s uncommon lunch.
By early October, even the smallest, newest girl knew the drill: present meal-plan card, take a tray and move through the options to make a meal. Students are surrounded with the right foods only — no soda, no vending machines — but what a variety! To an utter (and ever-hungrier) stranger looking over their shoulders, the range was surprising.
Cream of mushroom or vegetable barley soup … grilled chicken breast … steamed tipped string beans … oven roasted potato medley … garden vegetable cous cous salad … apple or blueberry crisp.
And they were just the highlights of that Monday’s menu. Staples on hand for every meal include salads that only start with mixed field greens; two soups daily; fruit, both whole and mixed; breads ranging from whole grain to bagels to tortillas; and, treated as a fillip, not a side dish, desserts served in small cups.
Not only do kids themselves choose what they’ll eat — there were a few plates with the potato medley and bread only — but they can also opt out of the meal plan altogether, or in part. Or, as Molly Russo said, “If not salmon, we can always have peanut butter and jelly.”
Among those with lunches from home, Tyasia Prilo was enjoying ravioli while Jordana Paris-Hatab gazed ruefully at a container of caramel. She had already eaten the apple, packed separately, intended to go with it. And using the microwave available, Rachel Park produced a notable, and sizeable, quesadilla packed with the day’s lunch ingredients.
Mission figs with balsamic glaze, pecans, blue cheese chunks, grilled Bermuda onions …
Moving around the dining hall, chatting with girls in transit and sometimes sitting down briefly at a table, Ms. Harkness serves as smiling cheerleader, lauding students who put “five colors” in their meals or try the yogurt or choose whole wheat instead of white bread, generally accentuating the positive she sees. It’s dietary education done in situ.
Accommodating special student needs, including allergies that can require scrupulous table scrubbing, and working with parents who have requested her help — they’re both on Ms. Harkness’s plate of job duties.
Stuart girls are articulate about their food: Praising the variety, Madeleine Schade added, “Everything’s real clean.” Julia Barluscio says the food here beats that at other schools she has visited, and Natalie Ragazzo agreed, saying it’s “all homemade.”
Alicia Fruscione, class of ‘98 and now assistant director of admissions, has by now eaten a few meals in Stuart’s dining hall. She remembers “traditional school food options” before the current staff brought “healthy choices” that she describes as “always fresh, always new.” “The food gets better every year,” she says.
Chicken Waldorf salad on a croissant … raspberry vinaigrette …
Sarah Caswell has been a vegetarian since sixth grade, she says, and though her many lunch options include pastas and salads, her favorite meal here is any day that’s “taco day” — a choice that was echoed around her lunch table.
That’s far from the only near and dear meal. Ms. Harkness and Mr. Giancola say the wild salmon (“No farm-raised fish!”) is quite popular, as is the roast turkey with mashed potatoes and green beans. But judging by the sheer number of student citations, it’s truly TGIF at Stuart: That’s the day for pizza and calzones and ice cream (along with salad and fruit).
In a post-lunch discussion of their approach, Mr. Giancola mentioned “Get them to try everything” as a goal — one that anyone familiar with picky kid eaters could appreciate. Meal planning calls for a mix of “fruit, veggies, protein, starch.” He’s the one behind the soups and sauces, and gets to know the kids through another of his customs: He greets students each morning while opening car doors when they’re dropped off for school.
Mr. Giancola earned certification as an executive chef at the Restaurant School in Philadelphia (now part of Walnut Hill College), while Ms. Harkness studied at the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, N.Y.
Oven-roasted veggies wrapped up in a hummus spread tortilla wrap …
Stuart’s varied lunch salads are the work of the dining services staff, who also help with after- school food programs. One of those is StuartExpress, an on-line take- home meal service through which parents can pick up meals as well as their children at the end of the day. This time- and labor-saver’s available Monday-Friday when school’s in session, with choices detailed on Stuart’s Web site. Harkness, Giancola and their team also cater school functions like holiday parties and gala dinners.
Not to be forgotten: Stuart’s daily “gouter” (French, “goo-tay,” light meal), a 15-minute snack time around 10:30 each morning. Traditional at all Sacred Heart schools, it can include tea and juice, muffins, turnovers, yogurt, granola, cereal … Just enough to keep body and soul together till lunchtime.

