It’s the first day of school, and the cafeteria is swarming with activity. New faces survey the salad bar, the hot food, the sandwiches, and each other. Students line up, passing their plates beneath the glass shield. They greet the cafeteria staff and notice that these individuals are not who they joked with last spring or wished happy holidays to in the winter. These faces are unfamiliar. In fact, the cafeteria itself, the food, the people, everything seems to be different—and it is. A new food service company, Cater to You, has joined Friends Seminary. The feeling of newness in the cafeteria, however, is not unfamiliar: Friends students, staff, and faculty were faced with the same situation the year before. In the past three years, Friends Seminary has worked with three different food service providers. 

After working with FLIK Independent School Dining for many years, the school parted ways with the company and began the 2022-2023 school year with Meriwether Godsey. This partnership lasted only one year before the current food service provider, Cater to You, joined the Friends community. 

When Head of School Bo Lauder was asked about why the school separated from FLIK, he said, “When Covid hit, we were not pleased with the service that they provided.” He added that after a long time and “a lack of superior service,” a change was needed. Alyson Evans, the Director of Operations, spoke about the separations from both FLIK and Meriwether Godsey, mentioning that the changes were made after hearing “dissatisfaction” from the community over the last two years. FLIK Independent School Dining and Meriwether Godsey were approached for an interview; both declined to comment.

The separation from Meriwether Godsey was deemed “mutual” by both Lauder and Evans. As the company is based in Lynchburg, Virginia and Friends Seminary was their only account in New York City, Lauder said that Meriwether Godsey, “with all good intentions, had a difficult time finding their grounding—their footing—in our kitchen, which is very small and in our city which is very large and complex.” Lauder concluded that “It just wasn’t the best match for us and, I think, the best match for them either.” When Evans was asked why the decision was mutual, she also did not mention any dissatisfaction from Meriwether Godsey’s end and stated, “They just couldn’t support the school and the program that we were looking for.”

This year’s food service provider, Cater to You, was founded by Kathryn and Anthony Trentacosti over thirty years ago with a mission to create a dining service that brings their passion for cooking for their own family to students in the New York City area. Cater to You is dedicated to making healthy and delicious meals from scratch, using local seasonal ingredients. They are currently the leading on-premise food service for independent schools in the New York metropolitan area. Students and faculty at Friends are generally satisfied with the food service which, Evans noted, is shown in this year’s small amounts of compost, a key indicator of what people are eating and what they are not. The only dissatisfaction was at the start of the year, when some vegetarian and vegan students and faculty were concerned about their lack of protein options. However, these concerns were quickly remedied and these members of our community have expressed their satisfaction with the hot vegetable and tofu provided in the cafeteria, though some noted that they would like to see more variation. Overall, the dining experience with Cater to You has been a great success and the community welcomes this new addition to life at Friends.