La Jolla Country Day’s lunch is made by SAGE Dining. This is a group of 14 people and 3 designated chefs preparing food for over 1300 hungry teachers and students. The team is led by Ms. Vanderpool who has worked at LJCDS for about a year. She is dedicated to providing LJCDS students with food that is not only nutritious but also healthy.
Our school’s catering team has an app called “Touch of Sage” where they are able to receive feedback and recommendations for each meal. The SAGE team would greatly appreciate feedback on all of the meals so they can make revisions to their four-week menu cycle. SAGE wants to receive more feedback on their food so they can ensure happy students. Students, staff, and faculty can also check the weekly menu here.
Recently, the Snack Shack, which offers a variety of snacks after 2pm each day, has started offering breakfast in the morning–adding an extra layer to their production. The Snack Shack will have burritos, açaí bowls, and drink options for their morning offerings. It already has a variety of chips, popcorn, yogurt parfaits, and fruit. SAGE gets here at 6am to: put away orders from their produce and dairy vendors, to unpack bread orders, cookies for themed events; and to meet the main vendor which delivers meats, sauces, and pasta. To streamline their cooking process, the team splits into different serving stations with designated types of food. They also use a “production sheet” to predict how much of each type of food they will need to make on a given day. On these sheets they log the temperature of their different food stations, and are used to help the team estimate how much of a certain type of produce they will need in the future to guide them in purchasing produce.
Ms. Vanderpool and executive chef, Luis, shared how much they enjoy getting to know the students. They love talking to students about their day and seeing how much they enjoy the food. Preparing enough food for the entire school, making it tasty, healthy, within budget, and appropriate for a range of dietary needs is a complex puzzle. The SAGE staff works hard to predict our needs–and the number of times we’ll come back for seconds and thirds! This requires ongoing cooking and communication between all staff doing the serving and the cooks behind the scenes. This cohesive team does a great job keeping us happy and well fed!
