NEWPORT BEACH : ‘Cool’ Menu, Decor Fill School Cafeteria

Dozens of Newport Harbor High School students stood in line Thursday for barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs. More waited their turn to fill their paper cups with yogurt. Others bought Pizza Hut pizzas, while some made their own sandwiches, tacos and salads.

No, they weren’t in the Fashion Island food court. These teen-agers were in the middle of the high school campus.

More students in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District have been ignoring the fast-food restaurants down the street from their high schools to stay on campus for lunch. For that reason, the district has been given the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Innovative Cafeteria Practices” award. The district beat out 140 school districts in California and hundreds of others in nine other states for the honor, according to federal officials.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Brian McAllister, 17, who remembers how the food used to be presented. “Now, it’s just like going out, and it’s kept a lot of people here.”

Back in 1990, when the district’s cafeteria food wasn’t selling well, cafeteria jokes were commonplace and officials were considering giving a management company the chance to boost food sales. That’s when district food service director Jan M. Monforte decided to redecorate the cafeterias at Newport-Mesa’s two junior highs and four high schools.

With $2,000 and hundreds of donations, she gave the institutional-looking cafeterias a face lift that impressed the students enough to reel them in.

For instance, the walls at Newport Harbor High’s cafeteria were painted a fiery red, signs directing students to the different foods were hung, and posters of surfing and beach scenes were put up. Rock ‘n’ roll blares out of a couple of speakers and “designer” food is sold from carts outdoors under red-and-white umbrellas.

Monforte said the district is constantly making changes to its cafeterias to keep students on campus. The most recent addition at the high schools was the frozen yogurt bar.

“A lot of schools don’t have this stuff,” said Lauren Jolliffe, 15, between licks of her strawberry yogurt.

“We’re always looking for new ideas to keep the kids on campus,” Monforte said.

“I eat this every day,” Sally Menjivar, 17, said, taking a bite of her hot-off-the-grill hamburger.

Last year, 1,000 more district students bought lunches on campus than the previous year, Monforte said. The increase since the new look came about has brought in more than $175,000, or about $35 a year more per student.

For the first time, the district’s food services budget broke even, Monforte said. “This school year we expect to make a small profit,” she said.