Detailed notes about the Food Services’ Department:
General: It would interest you to know that AES has over 50 employees in the Food Services and all are employees of the school or hired through a contractor appointed by school. Our goal is to achieve a break-even point after incorporating all our expenses including staff compensation. So we are self-subsisting to a large degree. As a rule, AES does not serve any pre-packaged goods. We strive to make all our food in-house. We are constantly trying to adapt to the world’s new mantras of healthy food, especially for our student body. There is now a major shift to procure as much of organic food material as possible. You can be assured that we also work with the best ingredients we can source from the local market. Of course we continue to look forward to your suggestions and comments on these new developments.
Daily Lunch:
Lunch is served in the following locations:
Elementary School (KG to Grade 5) 1st floor of our Food Building
Middle School (Grades 6 through 8) 2nd floor of the same building
High School (Grades 9 through 12) HS Cafeteria (now located in Stein Building under the new Library) & the Breezeway Kiosk (@HS itself).
Common notes for ES and MS Students
A two-week menu is circulated on the AES web-page and is to be found under “Student Services” or “School Life”.
While we now have a nutritious salad bar for the Elementary School, sliced fresh vegetables, tomatoes, onions, & lettuce are to be found on the condiments' tables in the Middle School. In general, for most of the food items your child may choose as much as (s)he likes. We encourage children to come back for seconds rather than waste extra food taken.
We do our best in trying to promote the students to eat the meal as it is offered, rather than only choose the plain rice/pasta or the dessert, and we hope that you too would be able to explain these choices to your children so that our goal of providing a wholesome lunch becomes a reality. Infact this is part of our school nutrition policy.
If your child has certain food allergies, kindly consult with the School Nurse before signing up for the lunch program. If your child does not eat pork or beef kindly let us know so that we can offer the alternative food for the day (either vegetarian or a suitable sandwich).
We serve a choice of beverages ~ juice OR flavored milk for the day, plain milk and water. Your child can take a maximum of 2 drinks per lunch.
A home-produced ice cream (or an alternative frozen yoghurt or fruit sorbet) is offered 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday & Friday) and Tuesday & Thursday are essentially fresh fruit buffet days now for the ES, and a dessert is offered to the MS, where fresh cut fruit is naturally available daily also.
We have an active Food Committee with PSA, Board and Administrative members and we are pro-actively upgrading our food offerings to reflect best practices. We use practically no pre-prepared foods or canned raw materials. We have been training our cooks at some of the best catering institutions in Delhi this summer. We hope you will notice the difference and encourage your children to give both you as well as us feedback.
ES/MS Lunch Charge:-
It may interest you to know that over 90% of all students KG - Gr.8 subscribe to the lunch program each year, which goes to show that the majority of the children are using this facility on a regular basis. If, however, your child does not want to eat here daily, he/she has the option of buying only drinks or dessert on a cash basis, and not any of the other lunch items being offered. Should you however, choose not to subscribe to the annual lunch charge, then please ensure that your children carry a substantial home lunch.
The annual charge has been fixed at: $ 535 for KG - Grade 8
In case your child joins/leaves in the middle of any of the school quarters/trimesters, please confirm from the Business Office (Ms. Jasleen Sethi @ Extn.3515 or jsethi@aes.ac.in) what the relevant charges would be.
We would request that you explain to your child that he/she may not share school lunch with friends who may have decided not to subscribe to this annual charge. If, in spite of being cautioned about this, they continue to share their food, we may be forced to withdraw their lunch privileges.
Special Note for all New ES and MS Students:~
Please use the first 2 weeks Aug 7th-17th as an evaluation period in case you are not sure whether or not your child would like to eat with us. If we don't hear from you by the 20th, we shall automatically presume that your child is continuing for the rest of the year, and you may kindly settle the bill you will be receiving from the school.
If, however, you decide to discontinue with the lunches after this trial period, then send in a letter to our Business Office (Jasleen) or e-mail Anil in the Food Services, (asingal@aes.ac.in). Furthermore, please stop by at the cafeteria and pay pro-rated lunch charges for as many days as your child has eaten in the 1st 2 weeks. Thereafter, he/she may buy only the drink & dessert on cash payment.
High School Students:
The High School Cafeteria, as well as the Breezeway Kiosk are open between 8am and 4.30pm, Mondays through Fridays, and students may buy drinks and fresh snacks there. We are constantly working on augmenting choices, especially during lunch hours as per student requests and viability. Students would find the daily "special" (the hot food being served to the ES and the MS) and some other “requested” food items at the HS cafeteria counter and these definitely constitue a wholesome and nutritious choice. A salad bar as well as fresh juices are additions this year.
Please note that the HS Cafeteria has shifted over summer to its new location in the Stein Building, under the newly made Library.We will soon be implementing a cashless system where the school ID will be working as the “swipe” card, and these can be “loaded” either online or in a few selected areas at AES.
The HS Cafeteria is out-of-bounds for ES and MS children at all times, except when accompanied by their parents.
Announcing the opening of a new Middle School Kiosk:
We are happy to be able to serve MS students a small variety of drinks and snacks right at their doorstep now! Timings of operations will co-incide with break-times as well as after-school.
Tiger Kiosk near Gate 5:
This is open Mon-Friday, 7:45am to 9:45 am and then from 2:15 pm until 5 pm. As mentioned at the beginning, the choices offered here reflect new school thinking on best practices in eating and drinking for our children by using a minimum amount of pre-packaged foods. Of the choices available, we do not serve any sweets to the children when they come in to school at 830am.
Saturday Snack Bar:
A small counter supplying drinks and a few snacks is open at the Ground Level of the Food Building each Saturday, 9am to 4pm for your convenience, since all other food outlets are closed on that day. Folks at the swimming pool can use this facility too.
Bakery:
We can supply you with several bakery products and other take-away dishes, if you so wish. A list of the goods available, details of pick-up time etc. is posted on the Cafeteria link on the School Webpage. This service continues on Saturdays and sometimes during the vacations too. For your ready reference we are also attaching the yellow sheet alongwith.
Parent Usage:
Parents are welcome to use any of the above food service facilities on a cash basis. We may soon be able to extend the cashless system to you also through your ID cards.
Environmental Steps taken:
We have discontinued plastic shopping bags; instead a smart cloth bag can be purchased for Rs 80/- . Recycled newspaper bags can also be asked for @ Rs 10-each. Further, we have discontinued using plastic mineral water bottles, as the school guarantees world-class drinking water at all the fountains and the steel coolers installed at the different sales points. All are encouraged to bring in their own flasks and refill water from these. We would appreciate suggestions for widening these valuable initiatives.
Vivek Ahluwalia, Food Services Manager, 26888854 Extn. 3750 or vahluwalia@aes.ac.in (July 2012)
Korean Parents