Dinners at Milton

This year Milton has revised the schedule for dinners in Forbes and in the house dining rooms. The School’s dining service, Flik, now serves dinner at 6:00 p.m., both for those who live on campus and those who are staying for activities or evening meetings — students and faculty. On evenings with “sit-down dinner,” that is, family-style dinners that include the students and the faculty in each house, the house heads ask that guests simply come in, speak with an adult, join in at dinner and stay for the full dinner — 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sit-down dinners are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights. The house heads anticipate that day students staying late will naturally gravitate toward the houses where their friends or teammates live and will therefore spread out among the eight houses for dinner. Over the course of the year, we will provide separate, earlier dinners for the few boarding and day students that need to adhere to special schedules, such as rehearsals or practices that start before 6:30 p.m.

Milton is busy after dinner. In the houses study hall begins at 7:30, while some groups of students work on the newspapers, rehearse for productions, plan assemblies or work on projects. This dinner plan allows boarding students and day students involved in life at School to eat dinner together. It allows Flik to concentrate its staff and service to make everyone’s dinner better, and provides a great way for boarding and day students to participate together in the lively life of the School.

Student newspapers have heatedly called the new schedule “the cancellation of early dinner, ” attributing the change to “budget cuts.” Both of these claims need context. Some years ago, the option of a separate dinner before 6:00 p.m. evolved to accommodate day students staying on campus for various commitments. In the last two years, that option — located in Forbes, directly on the way to the waiting buses — became a pathway for a quick first meal before the second meal at home. Often, unfinished food along with china and flatware stayed on the buses when students got off at home. The new plan, integrating day students and boarding students for dinner, has at least two major benefits: refocusing dinner on students who are staying on campus, and providing an opportunity for the students on campus to eat together rather than in separate groups. On the budget matter, the School’s allocation for dining services has not changed appreciatively. Milton, along with Flik, is simply trying to keep the focus on quality and best-possible service. We agree that dinner at home may feel on some days like a long way off, and we have extended the snack bar hours for hungry students until 5:30. Please take a look at the accompanying article on what the snack bar stocks for famished teenagers.

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