Foodservice at Faribault’s State Academies
By Mike Mitchelson

The Minnesota State Academies in Faribault have provided formal education and life skills for deaf and blind students for more than 140 years. The campus at the Academy for the Deaf reflects that long heritage; its regal limestone buildings lining the cul-de-sac in the middle of campus deliver a university-like feel. Balancing that historical weightiness is Katy Roth, the school’s youthful foodservice director, whose qualifications match the gravity of the schools’ needs. A state-classified dietician supervisor, Roth serves as foodservice director and dietician for both Academies, shuttling the mile-long distance between them, managing two separate kitchens and staffs.

The Academies are state funded, and are home to about 50 students on the blind campus, and 140 on the deaf campus, during the regular school year, with the majority of students residing in the schools’ dormitories during the week, from all parts of the state, elementary through high school.

The foodservice operation provides “all the meals for the residential students, a lunch meal for our day-only students, provide snacks for younger kids in the classroom, and afternoon snacks and different food orders for the dormitories,” Roth said. Those “food orders” are for cooking programs within the dorms, and the schools also provide independent living classes for the students—which include cooking skills.

Since the Academies are, essentially, home for the students, special events are also a large part of the foodservice operation, and range from holiday banquets to homecoming. The Academies also play host to a number of sports tournaments, Roth added, and visiting schools competing in those tournaments are provided lodging by the academies—a meal time can quickly grow into a large production.

But of course, feeding the Academies’ students is the primary task, and, like any other publicly funded school, the Academies follow all the dietary guidelines set forth by the state and the USDA, accommodate all the dietary restrictions a student might have, and then some. “At the blind school, it’s a bit more common to have multiple handicaps and physical disabilities,” Roth said. It’s not uncommon for those students to have certain textural issues with food that require slow introduction to something new, or problems swallowing therefore requiring pureed meals.

The physical layouts of the cafeterias are similar to a standard school, although the Academy for the blind there is a guardrail through the serving line. “The blind students go through ‘orientation and mobility’ (when they arrive at the school) and they learn how to maneuver through the school,” Roth said. “This also helps them to maneuver themselves through anything in everyday life, and just orient themselves to the surroundings. They know if they can go through line—and the cooks help them grab onto the plates—and they know the dining room and can manipulate themselves to go through and sit down at the table they want to be at. And we always have staff around to help and guide them.”

Nor do students take a passive approach to what is served to them. Roth has a menu committee filled with older students from the academies. “We meet once a month, they talk with the other kids, and they’re pretty active,” Roth said.

Roth herself is very active, bringing new foods to the students for taste testing, continually trying to expand horizons. It’s a career path she’s “been drawn to,” having worked previously as foodservice manager in an assisted living facility. “I’ve done a lot of cooking,” she said. “I’ve always been in the foodservice end of it.”