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12/20/2017 07:30 AMBy offering a delicious, nutritious seasonal dinner and dessert, boosted by student-powered musical entertainment and even a craft or two for the kids, Erica Biagetti’s concept for Guilford Community Dinners is striking the right chord.
More than 215 residents attended the first community dinner in October, enjoying a hearty fall meal showcasing the quality of food students receive at the town’s public schools, prepared by Guilford Dining Services (GDS). For Erica, now in her third year as GDS director, the fall dinner response was “overwhelming.”
“I was going to be happy with 50 people; and with the pre-sale tickets reaching 164 the Monday before, I was so humbled, and then just completely floored,” says Erica. “The response was overwhelming. I was thrilled! I wasn’t expecting to make apple crisp for 300, but we did.”
Now, Erica is hoping just as many—or maybe more—will come to Guilford’s Winter Community Dinner on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018 at Guilford High School (GHS).
Erica co-directs each community dinner with Jessica Catlin, director of Guilford Before and After School Care. Erica first shared the idea with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Paul Freeman last year. He wholeheartedly endorsed the project, which dovetails with the district’s focus on community.
“There was another district that was doing community dinners in a very different way—they were offering it as an inexpensive meal every week,” said Erica. “I wanted to put our own spin on it and build it up to be more of an inclusive event with great food. I wanted to have a theme, put out tablecloths and centerpieces, and send people home saying, ‘That was such a good dinner!’ The memorable meal is what’s key.”
Catlin coordinates networking news of the dinners to school families and also brings in family-friendly elements such as craft activities. Tickets for the three-course meal include early bird pricing as well as very reasonable door pricing. Proceeds benefit programs of Guilford Before and After School Care.
“We started planning last school year,” says Erica. “It took us about six months to go through all the channels and make it happen. And then, as we started planning, it started evolving more.”
Due to response, the Oct. 19 fall dinner had be moved from its original elementary school location to GHS to accommodate the crowd. The dinner also became an opportunity to showcase a Puerto Rico hurricane relief effort mounted by local kid-powered charity, Roots4Relief. As part of the night’s Halloween theme, kids came in costumes and enjoyed Halloween crafts. Meanwhile, parents raved about the night’s offerings, which included the likes of pumpkin alfredo pasta and butternut squash soup. At the invitation of Erica, GHS String Quartet Director T. Thomas Boates III brought his students to perform live music.
The Winter Community Dinner will feature holiday music performed by GHS Voices, directed by Kevin Buno. There will be two holiday kids crafts and, of course, a holiday meal that can be enjoyed by both adults and young ones. The three-course menu includes a BLT Wedge salad or tot-sized Italian meatballs, followed by a main course of slow-cooked pot roast or cranberry sage stuffed chicken, served with gravy, mashed potatoes, and roasted vegetables.
Kids can instead choose a meal of chicken tenders with “smiley” fries and roasted vegetables. A sheet pan mac n’ cheese with crispy topping will be available with all meals. Dessert choices include warm s’mores fudge brownies (with marshmallow crème and graham cracker crumble) or sparkle-topped vanilla snowflake cupcakes. Beverage options include hot cocoa, cranberry-apple juice, and water.
“All of the items are either on our school lunch menu or something we could incorporate,” says Erica.
GDS is the district’s self-operated food service company, serving GPS exclusively. Erica’s responsibilities include creative menu planning of enticing and healthy offerings (which also meet state and federal school meal guidelines), district-wide food purchasing, and directing daily operations and GDS staff. Each school day, GDS delivers multiple breakfast and lunch options to the town’s elementary schools, middle schools, and high school.
“We’re always trying to give them different food flavors to try. I just did a new menu for the elementary schools that includes chicken nuggets with a whole grain vegetable egg roll with sweet and sour dipping sauce,” says Erica, who keeps an ear to the ground for input and feedback from staff and students. “It does sometimes take a couple of menus for them to pick up on it! One meal we’ve offered at every level for about three months now is an applewood-smoked pulled-pork barbecue sandwich with sweet potato fries, and only now we’re getting to the ‘love’ stage.”
All schools offer fresh-sliced, Boar’s Head deli meats and include nut-free, gluten-free, and vegetarian daily offerings. Erica also features a hummus meal and a “meatless Monday” hot meal offering at all buildings, as well.
Salads are popular with the district’s older students and she’s testing a salad bar at Melissa Jones Elementary School. Recently added features at the high school include breakfast smoothies (chocolate banana is the top flavor) and a panini station (they’re eating up the cheeseburger panini with fresh tomato slice).
Shortly after she arrived, Erica rolled out hot and cold breakfast options at all school buildings, growing the program from elementary-only and getting a huge response. For students, a morning meal is as important as a mid-day fuel-up, says Erica.
“You have to feel full and be nourished to be able to learn,” she says.
Erica insists on serving fresh-cracked eggs when offering egg-based breakfast options and gets creative while sticking to school meal regulatory parameters such as serving 51 percent whole grain.
“We just offered pumpkin bread in the fall, and I’m introducing a scrambled-egg stuffed bread stick and a stuffed whole grain croissant for elementary students,” she says.
She’s also worked to build up GDS’s catering enterprise, which provides for meetings, events, and other programs taking place around the district. Erica’s office and the GDS central kitchen are based at GHS.
“I have a great staff,” says Erica. “All the kitchen managers have been here for much longer than me, and having their support and their ability is how we can grow, and do all of this as well. Because if they weren’t so great and supportive, then all these expansions that I’m taking on wouldn’t be happening.”
Erica’s innovative work is already getting noticed by her peers. In May 2017, she received the Rising Star Director Award from the School Nutrition Association of Connecticut. The industry award is given based on nominations made by school nutrition directors around the state.
“It was really exciting to get nominated by my peers and directors from other towns,” says Erica.
What’s equally impressive is that GDS is Erica’s first directorship. She was hired by GPS after serving for approximately one year as assistant dining services director for Milford Public Schools. In Milford, Erica oversaw the district’s central warehouse serving 14 schools.
A Madison native and Daniel Hand High School alumnae (Class of 2000), Erica earned a bachelor’s in Food Services Management from Johnson & Wales University. She also was a catering manager for New Haven’s Omni Hotel. But Erica’s love of working in the food service industry really began in the kitchen of her family’s West Haven restaurant.
“I’m the fourth generation in the food service business in my family,” she says. “My family owns Biagetti’s on Campbell Avenue, so I have big name to live up to with catering! I’ve been in the kitchen with my father since I was little. At 14, I was slicing onions and making casino butter! So I know food.”
Erica also appreciates the importance of gathering with family and friends for a meal, and that’s what Guilford Community Dinners are all about. If the winter dinner proves as popular as the fall event, there will very likely be a Spring Community Dinner, she says.
“At the first one, there were a lot of elementary level students and their families, and we’re hoping to expand it more, but having more than 215 people overall was just wonderful. We also had comment cards and we’ve now re-worked the menu so that people can come up to get any of the courses when they’re ready. I like to get my salad, sit, talk, and then get dinner, but if you’re a family on the rush, you can get all three courses at once,” says Erica. “It’s just a nice way to get together, go out for a meal and not spend a lot of money, and be involved with your community.”
Guilford’s Winter Community Dinner takes place Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Guilford High School, 605 New England Road. Tickets can be purchased online at http://guilfordcenterforchildren.com or www.guilfordschools.org; menu and more information also available online. Early bird prices (through Jan. 9, 2018): adults $8, children $5, family of four receives $5 off; family of six receives $8 off. Door prices: adults $10, children 12 and under $7.