A Boston High School Turns to Restaurants
The Boston Globe
November 10, 2002
By Laura Pappano
It doesn't look like your typical school cafeteria, especially with the big video screen and the line of cafe tables against the wall. But for students from the Media and Technology Charter High School in Boston, lunch period means hitting local restaurants like the Angora Cafe across the street in Brookline. Serving the students "is absolutely not a trouble," said Angora manager Sedat Firat.
Students also lunch at T. Anthony's, Mykonos, Boston Pizza Express, and the Mambo Cafe, all within a short stroll of the charter school's new facility on Commonwealth Avenue, once occupied by Ellis the Rim Man.
"You get out of school, you get to get out and walk around," said Denise Manning, 15, a ninth-grader from Mattapan, as she and her friends talked over pizza slices.
MATCH's new building is striking, but it has no kitchen and no cafeteria, which means that cold sandwiches are the only food choice on site. So MATCH Executive Director Alan Safran persuaded local restaurants to serve lunches that meet federal nutritional guidelines, at the $2.20 rate of federal reimbursement. Seventy-five percent of the students at the school are eligible for free or reduced lunches.
Safran said the arrangement has spurred restaurants to stock fresh fruit and milk. Teachers patrol the restaurants during lunch to make sure that students behave.
Ron Maderia is manager of T. Anthony's, which serves lunch to about 40 MATCH students each school day. He said the school's early lunch period - it ends by noon - does not conflict with their usual midday business. "The profit isn't that much," he said. "But they are good kids, and we make it work because of the time they come in."
Tia Jones, 15, of Roxbury, a ninth-grader at MATCH, also enjoys going out for lunch. "It gives you another responsibility," she said. "You feel like you are trusted."
|
2002 Headlines |
A Boston High School Turns to...
|
|
