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What Does It Take to

Feed a School?by Megan Tady

PHOTOS BY DAVID WARREN

13NMHMagazine

volume 15• number 2

Northfield Mount HermonREPRINT

fall

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plentiful and sought after in western Massachusetts in September, but it turns out teenagers won’t eat it.

“You show me 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds who are going to eat corn on the cob in front of kids they’ve never met before,” Messer says. “They’re not going to do it. They’re not going to have butter drip-ping down their faces.”

Messer should know; he has worked in Dining Services at NMH for 25 years, 19 of them in his current posi-tion. He first stepped into the kitchen at the age of 16, during a summer job

as a cook’s helper. “I watched the people I was work-ing for and saw they enjoyed it,” he says. “I thought, ‘I can do this.’”

These days, Messer’s goal is to make people in the NMH community feel satisfied, to “wow” them. He watches Food Network shows for inspiration, and each week, he and his staff try out new recipes in their quest for menus that

To feed 650 students over the course of the school year, plus faculty and staff, NMH’s cooks, bakers, and pantry workers make approximately 5,000 pizzas, 2,500 pots of soup, 8,000 servings of stir-fry, and more than 31,000 muffins. With help from workjob students, they set up and break down the dining room for meals nearly 700 times. They wash some 2,500 plates a day. And they facilitate more than 600 campus events throughout the year.

The variety of food they create ranges from the sophisticated—maple-glazed pork tenderloin, and black rice with lemon and edamame—to comfort-food staples such as spaghetti and make-your-own waffles. Menus are designed for every type of eater: carnivores, vegans, international students, people with

food allergies. The chefs are prepared to cater a lobster dinner for a 50th reunion or grill hundreds of hot dogs

for a last-minute picnic. Beyond the mountains of raw material and

the ingenuity and physical skills required to please hundreds of different palates, feeding the NMH community takes a certain kind of passion. Last fall,

when NMH’s football team battled Exeter, two hours away in New Hampshire, Dining Services director Rich

Messer (P ’06, P ’13, P ’16) was there, hurrying to the rival school’s kitchen to warm up the dinner he had brought to the game. He wanted hot roast-chicken-and-bacon subs waiting for the tired athletes when they boarded their bus to head back to NMH.

“You can give them a cold sub and it’s fine, or you can give it a little extra care, and boy, it makes a difference,” Messer says. The difference is this: Dining Services staff don’t just feed the school; they nourish it.

That takes a bit of sociological know-how—taking into account how stu-dents think and feel about different foods. Case in point: sweet corn. It’s

—240 dozen eggs

—46 gallons of whole milk

—1,000 apples

—80 pounds of yogurt

— 60 pounds of turkey breast for sandwiches

ere are a few of the items on Northfield Mount Hermon’s weekly grocery list:

Rich Messer

H

fall 2013 I 31PHOTOS BY DAVID WARREN

are diverse, high-quality, and appealing. The latest development: a grilled-cheese bar. Messer got the idea at a mall near Boston, snapped a few pictures with his iPhone, and shared them with the staff. Pesto, Vermont cheddar, bacon, fresh sourdough bread—“Picture Panera with the plastic basket, parchment paper, chips, and a pickle,” Messer says.

Recognizing that some students might still want American cheese on white bread, Messer and his staff decided to offer multiple versions of grilled cheese: the kind students know they want and also what they might love if they tasted it. “We make tweaks, and kids begin to try things they’ve never tried before,” Messer says. “They see people eating it all around them, they get bolder, and all of a sudden it opens their eyes to a new flavor profile.”

A weekly “chef ’s table” helps that effort along, featuring international foods such as calabacitas con elote (zuc-chini with corn and buttermilk), chana masala (chickpea curry), and chicken tagine (a stew with saffron, honey, fruit, and nuts). Meatless Mondays introduce

students to vegetarian dishes such as butternut squash slaw with apples and golden raisins, and arugula salad with grapes, goat cheese, and almonds. Food is made to order as often as possible; stir-fry is a popular example. Sauces, salad dressings, and soups are all home-made. The Alumni Hall bakery turns out sandwich rolls, muffins, desserts, and granola. Even the kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage) that appears at the Asian noodle bar each week is made by hand in the NMH kitchen.

Messer also wants to raise aware-ness among students about how their eating habits affect the environment. Inspired by Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he has pledged to buy 10 to 15 percent of NMH’s food from farms within a 40-mile radius of campus. NMH’s own farm supplies the kitchen with ice cream, maple syrup, seasonal vegetables, milk, raspberries, cider, and cheese. To deter diners from taking more than they can chew, Messer and his staff host “weigh your waste” events, and they eliminated trays from the dining hall in 2005.

Every week, alumni send recipe

requests to Sherry Margeson, the

office manager in Dining Services,

because they miss the cornbread,

the apple fritters, the granola. We

asked alumni on Facebook:

What was your favorite thing

to eat at NMH?

Bishop’s bread, what else?

—Charlie Charles ’71

Sunday sundaes and Mexican bar

on Thursdays. And frost-your-own

cupcakes. How I could eat and never

gain weight in those days.

—Rose Jackman Lynch ’00

“Turkey tortilla casserole,” which

looked like someone had cleaned out

the dish machine, put it between tor-

tillas, and baked it in the oven, but it

tasted delicious.

—Sarah Ruddy ’93

Make-your-own waffles on weekends.

—Samantha Keniston ’05

London broil. I remember one night

having the cook shut me off. It was

after a game and I think we ate a

side of beef.

—Aaron Kuzmeskus ’90

Chocolate lush—a cross

between chocolate pudding and

chocolate cake.

—Kate Hamlin Wehrle ’75

Grilled cheese for lunch made from

French toast left over from breakfast.

—David Kirk ’90

Grilled cheese and

tomato soup after

school vacations.

—Ben Hoadley ’97

LET'S EAT

Dinnertime in Alumni Hall

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Long before that time, when Messer was starting out at NMH, students waited in one long line for their meals, and staff spooned out dinner portions from behind a serving counter.

“You walked up and said, ‘I’ll have meatloaf and potatoes,’” Messer says. “And the next person said it. And the fifth person in line was vegetarian, but they were scared to death to say anything because they didn’t want to be different.”

Messer had some changes in mind. “One of the first things I did was say, ‘Kids, you serve yourselves. You con-trol the spoons,’” he says. “It allowed

them to try a little bit of this and a little bit of that. It totally changed our operations.”

Instead of one line funneling to a single serving sta-tion, Messer created “destinations” such

as the salad bar and the soup and deli bar. Kids are free to roam and choose foods as they please, which makes it less likely that they’ll feel judged for their food choices. Messer also wanted to create a more inclusive environment that connected his staff with diners. In 1998, he knocked down the walls that sepa-rated the cooks from the students, making the entire kitchen visible. “I took those [walls] down and put the glass in to say, ‘These are fresh ingredients and professional people

who care about what they do, so watch us with our work.’”

Forty percent of the student body becomes even more connected to the kitchen through their work-jobs—washing dishes, prepping vegetables, and baking cookies. “The kids feel comfortable in here,” says pantry supervisor Jody Kelleher, who has worked at NMH for 20 years. “They’re working really hard,” adds Messer. “They’ve got a lot of homework, they’ve got all the stresses of being a teenager, and they just need to get a bite to eat so they can face the rest of their day.”

In the midst of the kitchen chaos, with hundreds of students streaming in and out of Alumni Hall, going the extra mile is more the rule than the exception for Dining Services staff. Kelleher cooks one student’s breakfast every morning in a separate pan to accommodate his food allergies. “His parents entrusted him to us to make sure he’s safe, and that’s what we do,” she says.

Here’s what else they do: bake gluten-free peanut butter cookies for a visiting prospective student who can’t eat wheat flour. Start cooking chili at 2 a.m. on Mountain Day before trucking 800 pounds of the stuff to Mount Monadnock and Northfield Mountain. And, if they’re Rich Messer, they make sure they’re the last fan in the stands at an away football game, cheering on a tired team with the promise of a hot meal. [NMH]

“ Kids see people eating new things all around them, they get bolder, and all of a sudden their eyes are opened to a new flavor profile.”

NMH GRANOLA

Preheat oven to 225°F.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. canola oil

• 4 ½ Tbs. maple syrup, honey,

or a combination

• 1 Tbs. plus 1 tsp.

orange juice

• ¼ tsp. salt

• ¼ tsp. allspice

• ¼ tsp. cinnamon

• ¾ tsp. vanilla

• 2 c. oats

• ¼ c. oat bran

• ¼ c. sesame seeds

• ¹⁄³ c. sunflower seeds

• ½ c. chopped nuts

• ¹⁄³ c. flaked coconut

• 1 c. chopped dried fruit

(any combination of apples,

cranberries, bananas,

apricots, raisins)

1. Heat first seven ingredients

together over low heat.

2. Combine remaining ingredi-

ents, except for dried fruit, in

a bowl.

3. Pour liquid mixture over

dry ingredients and mix well.

4. Spread one-half-inch thick on

sheet pans and bake one hour

at 225°F.

5. After baking, mix in

dried fruit.

Store in airtight containers.

Makes 2 pounds.

Kimchi made on campus

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Cholin DelaCruz, Pantry Worker

“Kimchi. We have a ton of Asian kids

who love it. My secret ingredient is fish

sauce. I put the kimchi in a big jar and

let it sit outside for two days to fer-

ment. I make it with lots of love.”

Max Brody, Sous Chef

“What brings me the most joy is seeing

the kids eat the healthy food I make,

like this dish: roasted Brussels sprouts

with red onion, carrots, and grilled tofu

in an Asian ginger sauce.”

Heidi Haddad, Baker

“The morning muffins. I bring

them upstairs to the dining hall,

still warm, at 6:30 a.m. The early-

rising students often greet

me with smiles and

‘thank-yous.’”

Todd Draper, Executive Chef

“Dishes that use the NMH farm’s

produce—like the braised collard

greens and lentils on our vegetarian

line. I also like using our herb garden—

it’s got parsley, three kinds of basil,

sage, thyme, and rosemary.”

Al Klaus, Cook

“Stir-fry. It’s fast-paced, like line

cooking in a busy restaurant. It takes

many hours to prep, but I get to cook

in front of the students and interact

with them.”

Andy Thompson, Cook

“The ‘specials’—the other night

I did a chicken casserole in individual

casserole dishes, and an Italian

melt sandwich. I like the freedom

to be creative.”

Joe Ferrer, Catering

Special Functions Chef

“Szechuan beef. It’s dry-fried—intense

heat and intense flavor. You can hear

when it’s ready. And when the chilies

hit the heat, it’s a dish you can feel

as well.”

CHEF’S CHOICEWe asked NMH’s Dining Services staff: WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE THING TO MAKE IN ALUMNI HALL?

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