As the RSVPs for the 2021 Colorado Academy All-School Picnic rolled in, one thing was clear—people were eager and ready to return to Colorado Academy’s campus after a year of COVID-19 restrictions.
But Sodexo General Manager Paul Worley watched those RSVPs increase each day with a sharp eye—from 1100, to 1300, and ultimately to 1600.
“The challenge was making sure you had enough of everything,” Worley says. “We knew we had to have enough food in-house, despite supply chain disruptions.”
Supply chain disruptions notwithstanding, CA families left the picnic well-fed. They consumed:
750 burgers
1,400 hot dogs
300 veggie burgers
1,000 bags of chips
500 pounds of watermelon
15 gallons of baked beans
“This was my sixteenth picnic, and it was the biggest!” Worley says.
But the picnic is much more than food. CA families had not gathered to eat a meal together since the All-School Picnic in August of 2019. What Worley noticed was that people were so excited to see each other again.
“They didn’t mind standing in line,” he says. “They discovered that having the time to chat with people they had not seen in person for a long time can be a big deal.”
The weather was perfect, warm and overcast, students were playing on the new Lower School playgrounds, and as Worley put it, “You didn’t see anyone without a smile. It was a beautiful day all around.”