Oswego High School Cafeteria Rebranding Leads To Increased Interest

OSWEGO, IL — Oswego High School is seeing a resurgence of popularity in school lunches after the building became the first facility to have its cafeteria re-branded at the start of the school year, the district recently announced.

Over the summer, Aramark Student Nutrition took on the task of rebranding and building a new and updated lunchroom experience at Oswego High School.

This is the first rebranding of this kind in the area for Aramark. With Illinois no longer being a low-bid state for awarding contracts, Aramark was anxious to invest and show the possibilities for future lunchrooms, officials said

Oswego High School’s cafeteria was chosen as the first school by Aramark to be rebranded because it was the oldest high school in the district and in need of the most work and repairs.

All upgrades and costs for this rebrand — with the exception of small wares purchased by the district — were paid for and provided for by Aramark Student Nutrition, school officials said. It will now be up to the district on whether they wish to continue to rebrand additional lunchrooms across the district.

“In today’s society, students are more savvy and more aware of food choices,” Aramark Director Patty Alexakos said. Students are looking for options beyond the traditional lunch line.

The Panthers Rally Cafe was created for the students to feel like they had a “home” during their lunch periods, the district said. The rebranded cafeteria includes a tortilla station, a pizza station, a test kitchen, a rotating bar station, a sandwich station, along with grab-and-go coolers and more.

Since the rebranding at the beginning of the school year, Aramark has seen lunch participation increase back to pre-COVID pandemic levels. Typically, the company said it is common to see a 15 percent increase in participation from students after these remodels, which correlates to more revenue/reimbursement coming back to the district.

In order for the district to be reimbursed for a student’s standard lunch, which costs a student $3.55, a student needs to select one main entree and up to three three meal components, with one of those components being a fruit or vegetable while milk is an option that can also be chosen as part of their meal.

All District 308 schools operate using a cashless system utilizing PushCoin, where parents can fund student lunch accounts online using an electronic check or credit/debit card. When a student goes to “check out,” they simply scan their school ID, and the payment is automatically deducted from their PushCoin account. Eliminating the need to handle cash greatly helps with the flow and efficiency in the lunchroom, district officials said in the news release.