The future of SAGE dining at Catlin Gabel

By Alexandria Nagy ‘22

Image from previous onsite SAGE food service director, Chef Magnum McCormick’s Instagram.

Catlin Gabel School (CGS) students have increasingly voiced dissatisfaction with their school lunches, but what is really going on behind the scenes regarding Catlin Gabel’s food providers given the pandemic? 

The retirement of the previous head of the Barn, Hen Truong, ushered in a new CGS catering service. In a 2019 email, Head of School Aline Garcia-Rubio welcomed  SAGE Dining Services to our community with the goal of “providing delicious and healthy food for all of our needs.” 

The service promised several food stations from which students could choose daily, including food cart-like options, Italian, vegetarian, Asian-fusion, soup and salad, and home-style comfort food.

Moreover, SAGE exercised continued patience and partnership throughout the renovation of the barn in 2019 as well as the unexpected pandemic--and we all loved the iconic onsite SAGE food service director, Chef Magnum McCormick, while he worked here. Recognizing this, many students continue to feel concerned with the quality of the food and uncertain about the future of the catering service at our school. 

Sedona Snyder, a senior at the Catlin Gabel School who regularly eats SAGE entrees and buys from the Grab and Go, described. 

“[It is] average, uninspired, [and] bland.” 

On a scale of 1-10, with one being the worst and ten being the best, Snyder rated the taste of the food a four or five. 

This seems to be a common opinion amongst the student body. Another senior at the Catlin Gabel School who regularly ate SAGE lunches as a sophomore, Will Silver, similarly described the food. 

“[It is] rushed, mediocre, and sprinkle-cookieless.” 

On a scale of 1-10, with one being the worst and ten being the best, Silver rated the taste of the food a five. 

While Snyder and Silver give credit to the delicious muffins from the Grab and Go and barbeque chicken entree, they are generally unsatisfied with the food. 

“SAGE prepares the hot dog entree with weird unmelted chunks of butter,” Snyder said. 

“My least favorite food items have been the dry burgers and corn that was somehow soggy,” Silver commented.

Coupling with their opinions on the taste of the food, students are concerned about the nutritional value of the food. 

“The entrees SAGE serves are moderately healthy at best and the options they provide for snacks are mostly unhealthy,” Snyder believes. “I wish SAGE collected more student feedback and actually took it into account,” Snyder said. 

Silver suggests looking into meals that have the potential to be fresher. 

“If they are going to rush the food, make it food that can be pre-prepared well.” 

Moreover, Snyder wishes SAGE offered food on par with the previous catering service. 

“Hen was goated,” Snyder excitedly admitted. “His yakisoba noodles were delicious. He had great meat and vegetarian options.” 

Silver also offered Hen some praise. “He felt like a part of the community. He served diverse food of good quality. There were different types of food groups and foods represented by different cultures. The fried rice was delicious.”

Aline Garcia-Rubio expressed through email how she has also had some conversations with students about SAGE. She claims to have passed on the feedback to Barbara and to Morgan, early in the year.

“A few students I spoke with also spoke about portion sizes and the cost of the food,” Garcia-Rubio said. “I do not get my food from the barn very often. I think I’ve done so about 3 times this year, so I don’t have a very well-informed opinion based on personal experience.” 

Regardless, it seems students have been chewing on discontent more than they have their school lunches. If SAGE has surveyed students in the past asking for feedback, received communication from Garcia-Rubio, and promised to think about improvements and changes, then why does the student body continue to feel this way?

Morgan Pulley, the food service director with SAGE, is in the Barn all day, every day. Beginning in the fall of 2019, Pulley has been in control of designing the 4-week rotating menu and deciding what is served in the Barn every day.

According to Pulley, SAGE serves 75-120 lunches a day to lower school students and 180 lunches a day to middle and upper school students. She expressed that her determinations of what students want to eat are informed by examining what popularly sells amongst them. 

“The things that sell are what matter and what we keep going with,” she said. 

Despite these efforts, Pulley expressed how the pandemic has triggered a crisis affecting her ability to realistically produce the menu students may be wanting--a menu that requires greater availability of staffing, resources, and funding.

Over the Pandemic, SAGE experienced a massive labor shortage. 

“We had some staff members choose not to come back. Hiring new staff members has been a challenge because we just don’t get many applicants. People want more money, and some people we just can’t afford… The hours of working at a school are also challenging because if we are on a break there is no work so there’s no pay.”

Pulley expressed how this unavailability has deeply affected what kinds of meals are put on her menu.

“Since we are short-staffed right now, we are trying to go with meals that are easy to produce but also crowd-pleasers.”

Moreover, the pandemic has posted a number of inventory issues.

“I have a main food vendor, a produce vendor, [and] a dairy vendor. I order every week through those different companies, and certain things are always out of stock,” Pulley lamented. 

Pulley internalizes the feedback she receives, but instability continues to be a huge limiting factor.

“I will place an order for 20 cases of something and zero will come in. It’s literally a surprise every week what kinds of things will come in. For example, Gatorade and canned drinks... I’m not just forgetting about students who want things, I can’t get it. ”

Additionally, with the Barn’s renovation and the pandemic, SAGE employees have had to completely re-learn everything when considering what meals to feed Catlin Gabel students.

“I think people forgot that we were closed for over a year. This has been completely starting over from scratch; finding out how many kids we are serving, [and] what people like. We used to serve things students really liked in the past and now nobody likes them.”

Additionally, the cost of purchasing food has been another factor influenced by the pandemic. As a management company, SAGE covers the costs of food, employees, and resources given the budget allocated to them by Catlin Gabel. Furthermore, SAGE is not here to make money off of students by maliciously overpricing food. 

“SAGE does not make a profit, we are here to break even. Everything is the school’s money, and covering the costs is difficult right now.”

Garcia-Rubio confirmed that Terry Murphy and Barbara Ostos are responsible for the funding towards SAGE and that their non-profit element is true. The reality of the monetary situation is that certain things are very hard to purchase right now. 

“Prices of things have pretty much tripled in terms of meat, so we have to be careful about what we are making, what we are producing, and what goes on the menu.”

While she will be unavailable to speak with personally in the near future due to her maternity leave, Pulley welcomes students to visit the Barn and discuss suggestions for the menu with staff. She also suggests emailing sage@catlin.edu.

“I can change tomorrow’s menu if I want to, so if people want to say things, then it’s worth it and I need to hear it. We are all open to hearing what the students want because we want to sell food and make everyone happy,” Pulley advised.

“I hope that once the pandemic ends, many issues will be resolved,” Garcia-Rubio added. “I feel a lot of compassion for Morgan who has been working with great effort, positivity and care in very challenging circumstances,” Garcia-Rubio said.

The solution to our SAGE-Dining-disquietude is not to loathe the catering service, but to be patient, to communicate, and to empathize with our hardworking staff who want to provide students with quality lunches to the same extent as we want to eat them. Garcia-Rubio encapsulated it perfectly.

“We are often more fortunate than most.”