Paresky Commons has expanded its selection, as seen with this Pulled Pork and Slaw Biscuit.
Three times a day, seven days a week, and over 180 days a year, the Andover community floods the doors of Paresky Commons to socialize, come together, and enjoy food. In recent years, Paresky has undergone many changes resulting from the pandemic.
After being forced to adapt dining services during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Paresky staff have worked to restore the dining hall to pre-Covid-19 level of quality and food service. Even then, following the reopening after the pandemic, some aspects of Paresky have changed for good.
Karen VanAvery, the Senior Director of Dining Services for Paresky Commons, commented on the work that goes into every single meal at Paresky. VanAvery highlighted how the focus of Pareksy meal service was to provide sustainable food from local vendors that meet the nutritional and health needs of students while having a diverse selection of foods.
“We start months out designing menus that change with the seasons. We want to offer the best food possible for the time of year. We order our bread and produce fresh daily, all other items come in 3-4 times per week. Once the trucks have arrived, our team begins working early in the morning to prepare delicious scratch-made food for all meals. Our baker Dawn starts first thing in the morning to prepare her scratch-made desserts for us!” wrote VanAvery in an email to The Phillipian.
VanAvery continued by describing how the staff at Paresky has adapted throughout the Covid-19 period to put out quality food to students, faculty, and staff. She described the challenges the team faced and the ways they overcame such roadblocks to provide meals, even when supply shortages were extremely prevalent.
“During times of short supply, we would work with our distributors and procurement division to ensure we had the items to create daily meals. During the height of supply chain shortages, we would sometimes need to change our menus daily to account for items that could not be delivered. We also changed the way we received our foods to ensure we were staying within our service protocols and safety guidelines. I believe Covid[-19] taught us to all be a little more flexible and remain resilient through change and challenging times. We never said ‘we couldn’t’ do something, we just planned outside the box and worked differently,” wrote VanAvery in an email to The Phillipian.
Ashton Ma ’24 talked about how food at Paresky has changed throughout the years, comparing the food currently being served to meals at Paresky during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I wasn’t here before Covid[-19] but I’ve heard it was way better, like there was an ice cream machine. [Food during Covid-19] was really bad. Green boxes [were] not the life. A lot of Seniors will know what I’m talking about, but really bad food. After [Paresky] Commons reopened, I’d say they’ve done a pretty good job every year,” said Ma.
Thinking about Paresky food during pre-pandemic years, alumna Christine Micheal ’22 described aspects of Paresky that have since disappeared or changed. She explained possible reasons as to why Paresky slowly phased out of certain menus and materials throughout the years.
“I think they did get rid of a lot of it. I think [Paresky] Commons [was] just moving to also being overall more sustainable. I think they got rid of a lot of their one-use cups, which was annoying at that time because I used to just grab food and go. I noticed that in [Lower] year I wasn’t able to do that, there weren’t any paper or plastic cups sitting around in [Paresky] Commons,” said Micheal.
Micheal elaborated on the details of the restrictions and inconveniences of getting food under pandemic protocols as well as changes that took place as a result of Covid-19 after restrictions were lifted.
“I think the quality and variety did decrease a bit with the pandemic because [Paresky] Commons had to think more about meals that had to be kept outside a little bit. I think there were just fewer meals that would be cycled through. [Paresky] Commons food did for the most part go back to normal post-pandemic but I think that there were some meals that they didn’t serve anymore,” said Micheal.
Another Andover alumnus, Abdu Sahibousidq ’21, pointed out many facets of Paresky that were slowly phased out over time and were eventually removed during his time at Andover. Sahibousidq also noted how during Covid-19, the Paresky meals options were further scaled-back.
“My freshman year there was a soft serve machine upstairs and the sorbet machine downstairs and every day for lunch one of the machines would be available. Then they got rid of the soft serve, but we still had the sorbet machine. Eventually there started to be sorbet way less frequently, and I’m not sure if they ever fully brought it back,” said Sahibousidq.
Philip Jeong ’27, a student new to the food at Paresky, mentioned aspects of meals he liked as well as parts he hoped could improve in the future. Although Jeong has just been on campus for a few weeks, he expressed his satisfaction with the food served at Paresky.
“I think the [Paresky] Commons food has met my expectations and is much better than public school food. I like the fact that they have a diverse variety of food they make, like the salad bar, the wok, the grill, and the hearth, and I think they really try to incorporate everyone’s needs and restrictions when they make food. If they could be better, I think the wok and other dishes could be more authentic to the cultural dishes they reflect. Like the Korean tofu stews are quite different from what I am used to,” said Jeong.
