School strives to energize meals
By John McReynolds/Record Correspondent

Lompoc High School: Its doomsayers are a legion.

So are its defenders.

Class periods are too short, or too long, its neighborhood is unsafe, or not, its football team failed to make the playoffs. Well, there is no argument on that one.

Nor is there debate about the cavernous room once known as the cafeteria. That old-school label still appears in raised block letters outside the building, but inside it has been transformed. It is now “Braves Bistro Food Court,” a hip café.

The long green institutional tables with attached benches are gone. So are the frozen burritos packaged during the Reagan administration and the depressing atmosphere of chow hall at the prison. Nobody used to come here.

“I never set foot in this room as a student nor as a teacher,” said a smiling Bree Jansen, the sunny and locally reared LHS activities director. “Until this year.”

At 11:30 a.m. on a recent Friday a bell sounds. Milliseconds later the first Brave flashes through the Bistro door and vaults a cord demarking The Main Event serving line from four others. The second arrival slides under the rope (Where were these guys during football season?). An eyeblink later a double column extends 25 feet before disappearing out the door.

Today’s marquee attraction? Teriyaki chicken rice bowl.

“You used to see 100 students here, max,” teacher Jim Steffey said as he gathered up lunch to take back to his room. “Now you can’t get in without bumping into people. I’m seeing kids eating lunch who didn’t eat before.”

Since late September, the number of daily lunches served here has tripled from less than 200 to nearly 600. Those eating with reduced prices have doubled. Breakfasts are up 240 percent.

“That’s a huge increase and that’s money for the school district,” said new district Food Services Manager Kathy Bertelsen, who is credited with being the architect of this amazing revival. A petite 5-foot-1 and 115 pounds she rarely stops moving. On the job at 6 a.m., she takes dance lessons in the evening and hikes on the weekends.

“I noticed we needed more serving lines,” she explained. “The kids were waiting too long. I knew that only three choices were not enough to entice them. They have 14 choices now. And we needed improved food.”

Now, five hot serving counters, boldly labeled with red, yellow, purple and green neon signs, offer from two to four options each. On this day, Taco Express served a bean and cheese burrito, nachos and two styles of tacos.

The Main Event featured the rice and chicken bowl; Subs Your Way offered salad, sub or yogurt parfait; M.C. Clucks presented three styles of chicken; and The Cutting Wedge cheese or pepperoni pizza.

For just $1.25, each meal includes fruit, salad bar, and milk or water. All the menus already meet updated standards for nutrition to be required by the state next June. “Why not start now?” Bertelsen said, grinning.

None of the serving lines remain empty. Bertelsen quickly deletes menu items that do not sell. Thus turkey with mashed potatoes was replaced by country fried steak and today’s rice feature took the place of macaroni and cheese. The meal count Friday totaled pizza 208, rice bowls 151, burritos and tacos 115, submarine offerings 80 and chicken sandwiches 60.

The rice in the rice bowl was moist without being too clumpy, and came mixed with a hefty portion of broccoli, carrots and cabbage as well as chicken. Two packets of soy sauce, a fork and chopsticks and even a fortune cookie accompanied every bowl.

“We have kids eating cabbage,” Bertelson said, grinning again, this time with amazement, as she looked at the out-the-door line for the rice bowl. “I’m not sure they know that.”

Even the salad bar, appealingly stocked with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, mixed fruit cocktail, sliced peaches, tuna, jalapenos, corn, beans and lettuce, did steady business. “The lettuce is crisp,” a staff member was overheard exclaiming.

“The popular belief is that kids only want greasy food,” Principal Art Diaz said during a brief visit. “I saw one student at the salad bar who took three or four tomatoes, so I asked him about it. He said, ‘We don’t get these at home.’”

Besides offering fresh, tasty food attractively presented, and almost five times more choices, Braves Bistro also presents décor that is a galaxy removed from the old institutional lunchroom.

“I met with a group of students,” Bertelsen said. “They said they didn’t like long tables. They wanted round tables for no more than six people.”

Bertelsen followed through.

“We didn’t have them ready at the first of the year. We got them in late September. We didn’t announce it but when the kids saw them they literally ran to them to hold their spots.” The neon signs arrived late as well. “A month later when they saw the neon signs their faces lit up.”

The tables came in muted colors, gray and two shades of blue. The chairs are speckled blue and the color combinations complement new Venetian blinds shading the windows in royal blue. The place has the look, feel and, at least after the 11:30.01 a.m. stampede, the subdued noise level of a small college student union.

Even clanging trash cans are gone, supplanted by rectangular boxes hiding a garbage bag. “The new garbage cans have led the kids to use them,” Bertelsen noted. “The janitors say it’s much cleaner now.”

Bertelsen likes to say that she had scarcely arrived 22 months ago when Diaz lobbied her about a food court.

“We had a number of kids who wouldn’t eat,” Diaz explained. “And I knew if you offered good food they would eat. All I could do was ask. Kathy made it happen.”

By all appearances, Bertelsen does that – she makes things happen. A registered dietician, she did not attend college until she was 32. She was a waitress to that point and she gives the impression she has not forgotten the punch of a time clock. She worked her way through community college and the University of Connecticut. Sixteen years ago she went to work for the food facilities management company, Sodexho, and consulted with school food personnel in Pasadena, Lake Arrowhead, San Jose and Santa Maria.

“I was a coach there,” Bertelsen said, hinting at the difference between a consultant who can recommend and a manager who takes charge.

“This is a restaurant,” she said. “The kids are our clientele. We are catering to them. We want them to come and eat with us.” After listening to the students she dug into a large financial reserve built up by her predecessor and invested in the kitchen. She purchased a new 55-cup rice cooker and steamer, new ovens, a bun warmer and more, not to mention the new hot serving counters, the salad bar, and the chairs, tables, and signs – $325,000 worth.

Recognizing she could not transform food services in the district’s 19 schools by herself, she expanded a part-time assistant position to a full-time job and filled it with another registered dietician, Sandi Jefferson. “I could not have done this here without Sandy,” Bertelsen said. “Sandy ran the district while I was here.”

Bertelsen is a fountain of positive energy. She seems to have praise for every employee and every student and the feeling seems reciprocal.

“I love working here,” she continued. “I have brought a lot of changes and the food service staff trusted me. I have never had it so good. I had one gal say to me, ‘Kathy, we’re rooting for you.’ My eyes watered.”

Soft-spoken Rose Gentry has worked in the LHS cafeteria for nine years. “Then Kathy came into our lives.” Her eyes twinkled. “She had this vision of a food court. My first worry was how am I going to do this all by myself, but we all wanted a change. You can kind of get stuck in a rut. Why not change? Every time Kathy comes up with something we all go, ‘OK, we’ll try it,’ and sure enough, the kids like it. It’s a lot of fun.”

The staff has expanded from two to seven to handle the noon crush and clubs on campus can even earn money as their members help in the kitchen. Morale seems to bubble as student diners respond to their upscale surroundings in kind.

Quston Stallion, a senior, was a member of the first focus group Bertelsen consulted.

Was she pleased with the turnabout, she was asked. “Oh yeah, and more,” she replied with a happy smile. “I like the Chinese food and I like the round tables. It’s a more intimate setting.”

“It’s like a restaurant-type setting,” said freshman Naem Nameh. “It’s not like you’re at school. It’s pretty quiet in here, nobody’s running around.”

Senior Jani Carmona agreed. “There’s more variety and the environment is cool.” Then she hesitated, searching for words. “It seems like the school cares.”

Off-campus fast food vendors have noticed. In a quick, unscientific poll, three of four managers at H and College eateries acknowledged guardedly that at least “for today” their student lunch business had dipped. One estimated by 15 percent.

There is more coming. Bertelsen plans a “Braves Bistro” mural across the inside wall, music and maybe even a big screen TV.

The positive energy flow may jolt C-A-F-E-T-E-R-I-A right off the wall.

Correspondent John McReynolds can be reached at 736-6352 or johnny544@verizon.net

Dec. 18, 2006