Red trays, rushed lunches and rowdy middle schoolers are now a figment of the past. After 24 consecutive years at the middle school, food service manager Brenda Vardell opted not to retire, but to become a Scot instead. 

Vardell’s transition to high school means bringing over familiar dishes and line options that have become staples among middle schoolers. 

“I think middle school has a lot more options,” HP parent and President of Culture Fest Ester Choi said.”All three of my children enjoyed the middle school lunches.”

Some of Vardell’s more drastic changes include removing the chicken tender and pizza lines, instead offering those meal items as rotating substitutes for the daily hot meal. 

“I’ve added in a baked potato bar so you guys could actually know we have potatoes every day,” Vardell said. “That wasn’t really known before just because they weren’t visible.”

In addition to serving baked potatoes, the once pizza line also serves salads and a daily soup. The primary goal of these line changes is to mitigate congestion that would occur when the salad bar and deli were in the same line. 

“The orange chicken is my favorite thing about this school, and I like the salads because they give us a lot of toppings to choose from,” Sophomore Claudia Rogland said. 

Vardell came to the high school multiple times last year to meet with the student council and get feedback on what meals they would like to see brought over. 

“One of the craziest requests was circle pizza, the small Tony’s Pizza,” Vardell said.  “Apparently those are a big hit along with the pepperoni Bosco sticks.” 

Those requests were honored. Additionally, Vardell seeks to expose students to different flavors and spices they may not otherwise encounter.

“I guess you could say my menu’s a little global,” Vardell said. “I try to do things like Asian and Mediterranean foods.”

Popular dishes include the Korean Beef Bulgogi Bowl, Key West Shrimp Bowl, Pork Carnitas Buddha Bowl and Pork Eggroll Bowl.

“I was pleased to see the cultural variety,” Choi said. “I mean this is kind of what we do with Culture Fest is educate people through food.”

No matter how many dishes Vardell can conjure up, some students may still only want chicken tenders and pizza. But, these new menu changes give students a daily choice to try something new — even if it’s just a side dish. 

“I don’t think that we need to be forcing or pushing anybody to do anything,” Choi said.  “It really is just if you wanna try it, you can try it.”

Both main lines now serve identical food options, with a third line to be built during remodeling. Renovations of the cafeteria are set to begin during spring break with the intent to have the new cafeteria up and running by the 2026-2027 school year.

 “I like how the school sells Chick-fil-A biscuits on Wednesdays but I wish we could still get Dr. Pepper from the soda machine,” Rogland said.  “I don’t think they should have got rid of that.”

Vardell’s more controversial changes like removing the soda machine are only temporary solutions. Like most of the cafeteria equipment, the soda machine is past its years, hopefully to be replaced by a Coke brand machine before next school year.

“The market’s going to be inside where the deli is and then the cashiers will move out, similar to how they are in middle school instead of sitting back in the serving lines,”Vardell said.

Vardell — who was instrumental in planning the Middle school cafeteria’s 2013 remodel — plans to include the same open concept design by swapping the garage style doors for glass ones, as well as knocking down walls separating the kitchen and service lines. 

 “It’s a huge business just like a restaurant where the employees actually get paid through the cafeteria funds,” Vardell said  “So we’re trying to make a profit to give back to the school, which I think these changes will assist with.”

Managing a restaurant that serves roughly three to four thousand people each day is bound to be exhausting. 

“I have a passion for this,” Vardell said. “I was weighing two options of retiring or coming to the high school, but I love doing this so much and I’m not ready to leave.”