Imagine starting your day at 5 a.m. every morning, not to return home until at least 5 p.m. Well, that is a normal work day for employees of Flik Dining at Mount Pisgah.

     When they arrive, a group of Flik employees plan and prepare breakfast for the lower school, while others get started on middle and upper school lunches. Once it’s prepared, breakfast is then delivered to north and south campus (preschool and lowerschool) at around 8 a.m. Then, the same group prepares and delivers lunch to south campus at around 11 a.m. 

     Once the preschool and lower school have been served, it is then time to serve the middle and upper school. Starting at around 10:50 a.m., Flik serves all middle and upper school students  (grades 5-12). 

     After lunch has been served for everyone, employees clean up the entire kitchen and leave for the day, just to do it all over again the following morning. In all, Flik serves about 850 students a day, as well as all the faculty and staff. 

      Although it is a lot of work, many of the Flik employees truly love what they do. 

     “It’s really very rewarding to make something that is safe for [students], and to give them, especially those with food allergies, something they don’t usually get to eat” said Flik’s head chef Alan Knight.          

     Knight has been a chef for about 35 years, working at places like Le Cordon Bleu, the Georgia Dome, Mercedes Benz Stadium, State Farm Arena, Proof of the Pudding, and now Flik. With his many years of experience, Knight leads and directs the staff in creating the food that is served.

Flik dining was started in 1971 by a man named Rudiger Flik with his wife, Julie Flik. In 1995, Flik joined the Compass Group, which is a British multinational foodservice company, and also the largest foodservice company in the world. After joining Compass Group, Flik dining flourished into an extremely successful company. It is now a hospitality 

organization, serving establishments like independent schools, hospitals, and even some large sports teams, such as the Tennessee Titans. Today, Flik currently has organizations in 35 states with over 400 operating locations—Mount Pisgah being one of them. 

Some may be wondering, why did the school  decide to change dining services?

According to surveys conducted by the design thinking class last year, the previous dining service, Sage, “served undercooked [food]” and did not provide “enough healthy options.” These statements became extremely common among the student body, and ultimately Sage was replaced with Flik.

Thus far, it appears as though Flik has provided a much better lunch experience than Sage. 

“The feedback has been more compliments than complaints from students,” said design thinking teacher Alison Cuppia. The majority of the student body has been pleased with the transition from Sage to Flik, and lunch is no longer a prevalent issue.