Ben Shofet, Business Manager
When the Beverly Cafe first opened its doors in 2011, the food was transformed completely. They offered freshly cooked meals, cooked by Beverly’s own culinary staff. However, after a year and a half, the Cafe began feature lunches from popular local restaurants, like Subway or Pick Up Stix.
Today, the Cafe has completely abandoned the process of importing food from restaurants. The Fresh Brother’s pizza that once filled the shelves at the Cafe, has now been replaced with the cafeteria’s own cooked pizza.
“I don’t know all of the implications, but I feel that it’s a lot more fresh and better for the school.  It’s a lot better than last year. They are adding more and more foods, which provides for a lot more variety for the students,” junior Ryan Neydavood said.
This year, the cafeteria has introduced a wide variety of meal options that were not present in previous years. Aside from the burrito bar and sizzle station, the cafeteria has added on a pizza station, where pizza is cooked in abundance to feed the hungry students that rush the Cafe every day.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love Fresh Brothers it’s pretty good pizza, so is Nagila, but I love the pizza that they make here at the cafeteria, partly because it’s incredibly fresh. When I get my pizza it’s literally out of the oven within two minutes. That freshness makes for delicious food,” history teacher Dan Moroaica said.
Not all, however, are as fond of the changes that the Beverly Cafe has implemented over the past few years. Senior Michael Barcohana, who eats at the cafeteria three times a week, holds very strong feelings pertaining to the cafeteria.
“The changes are terrible, now the food tastes disgusting. They force us to stay for lunch. What am I gonna do starve? I might as well eat something,” Barcohana said.
According to food services manager Heather Oyamo, this year the cafeteria is no longer importing lunches from local restaurants, and be the sole provider for lunches at the school, with the exception of the kosher sandwiches that are delivered.
“Whenever I’m in the cafeteria I love to get the mac n’ cheese with spaghetti, comfort foods,” [That’s what] I like about the cafeteria, it’s the fact that it should be kind of home cooked food in a school setting.
While some may feel that the cafeteria food is filled with “terrible” food, patrons of the cafeteria feel as if there is a social stigma associated with eating at the cafeteria.
“People have often had a stigma, but it’s often an unwarranted stigma. If people actually sat down and ate in the cafeteria, they’d see their food is pretty good,” Moraica said. “As we are having this interview I am literally eating this cafeteria food. Which I think is very good, it’s not In-N Out, but it’s still very good.”