Cass Catering is back for the 2024-2025 school year at U of D Jesuit High School. They provide students lunch on every school day with rotating specials and separate sides, such as fries, salads, mozzarella sticks, and sandwiches. This raises the question: What is Cass doing to improve, and what is the student’s view of them as a whole?
At the start of this school year, Cass enforced new rules in the cafeteria to make lunch more efficient for students. The new rules instated include: no backpacks in the lunch line, IDs must be present to receive lunch, and the traffic pattern is not allowed to be broken.
Although Cass thrives at maintaining order with the lunch line, their food quality is the staple of the lunch service. The students at UDJ are the true voice of feedback on the food quality. As Santi Ortiz, a current Senior at UDJ, explained, “I think the lunch food is fine, it has been steadily increasing, but not in a big way”. This statement indicates that students are satisfied with the food but not ecstatic on an everyday basis.
Another main factor of the lunch service is variety. This includes the rotating specials every day, which is the main entree, which comes with protein, carbs, and vegetables. An example of this is the “Wing Ding Special,” which comes with five wings, fries, and vegetables on the side. Cass provides other options such as mozzarella sticks, fries, and chicken tenders in the hot section, as well as salads and subs in the cold food section. Even though the lunchroom provides different types of food, is it satisfying the students? Patrick Scheible, a senior at The High claimed, “the food is pretty much the same everyday. Sophomore year they had more variety in the hot and cold section, but they at least change up the special every day”.
The nutritional value of the food is very important. Cass does produce salads and sandwiches that are healthy, whole foods. Cass also produces hot foods, some with nutritional value such as the special, and others that are less nutritious such as the fries and cookies. As Senior Charlie Walton stated, “the specials tend to be heavy and greasy, but the salads and hot sandwiches are a more healthy alternative. Even though some of the food can be deemed as unhealthy, the food is good because there is a food choice for everyone”.
As emphasized by members of the student body, the lunch food at UDJ has some flaws, but because Cass never fails to produce lunch, the quality is acceptable considering how many students they feed, which keeps it at a steadily satisfying rate throughout the school year.
