SAVANNAH, GA – October 6, 2020 – Savannah Classical Academy (SCA), has opened a brand-new kitchen and introduced a new culinary arts program for the 2020-21 school year. The new meal service is the first time SCA students have hot meals prepared for them onsite and the meal service is available to students on campus and for collection by students who are learning virtually. SCA reopened its doors on Aug. 19 and currently approximately 60 percent of its students are opting for in-person instruction, with this number growing every week.
SCA completed the total new buildout of the kitchen on the school’s East Anderson Street campus during the summer. The meal service team of experienced chefs and restauranteurs have been preparing breakfast and lunch service for students and faculty since the semester began. Meals are prepared by trained chefs and cooks of Daniel Reed Hospitality Restaurant Group. The service is approved by the United States Department of Agriculture, Georgia Department of Education and The Department of Public Health. SCA announced its partnership with Daniel Reed Hospitality in late 2019 and now the company has fulfilled its commitment to support SCA by preparing, and training SCA’s staff for the service, as well as offering internships and culinary experiences for SCA’s high school students.
Students select their meal options each week from the menu provided. This not only reduces waste but also gives students the opportunity to input into the different menu offerings and teaches life skills related to healthy eating habits. “In every school system I have worked, the quality of the meal service has always been an issue,” said SCA Executive Director Barry Lollis. “I am very pleased that our partnership with Daniel Reed Hospitality has resulted in the highest quality nutrition, meets program requirements, and most importantly is a product our students and staff are enthusiastic about eating and really enjoy.”
SCA is closely following all guidance by Governor Kemp, The Georgia Department of Public Health, Georgia Department of Education and the Center for Disease Control to protect students and faculty from COVID-19. SCA families are offered the choice of online or in person instruction and to date nobody at SCA has contracted COVID-19. Students on campus are subject to symptom screening, social distancing, enhanced disinfecting and sanitation protocols, mask wearing requirements and benefit from many facility upgrades including air purification systems and germicidal UV-C entryway lighting. Students are enjoying the new catering style meal services and strictly adhere to social distancing in lunch lines, extended lunch hours, older students eating in classrooms, dividers at dining tables, covered meals and servers wearing personal protection equipment.
SCA made nutrition a top priority and balancing this with appetizing meals is why the charter school partnered with experienced restauranteurs. Studies have proven that insufficient nutrient intake during childhood has been linked to physical and mental health problems as well as emotional and behavioral problems, learning deficiencies, and lower grades. Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten (ECLS-K) Cohort, which followed more than 21,000 children from kindergarten through third grade, showed that by the third grade, children who had been food insecure in kindergarten had lower reading and mathematics scores than their peers who had not been food insecure in kindergarten. Another study, published by the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, found that school-age children who are hungry and at-risk for hunger are more likely to have problems with hyperactivity, absenteeism, and generally poor behavioral and academic functioning than their not-hungry peers.
SCA is a K-12 charter school which is open to all students residing in Chatham County, is partially funded by earned public education allotments and retains a charter that allows it to operate autonomously under a board of parents and community members. SCA is supported by the Savannah Classical Academy Foundation, a non-profit organization. To learn more about SCA, or to find out how to support the initiatives of this charter school, visit www.savannahclassicalacademy.org/sca-foundation/
Daniel Reed Hospitality exists to offer great food and great service in beautiful locations. Opening its first restaurant’s doors in 2007, the employee-based company owns and operates four concepts in Historic Downtown Savannah: Local11ten (including Perch), The Public Kitchen, Soho South, and Artillery. For more information about Daniel Reed Hospitality, please visit www.daniel-reed.com.
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