They come by the dozens every day to the same lunch spot in the Heritage High School commons.
Some customers, such as Cody Conway, never deviate. For the 15-year-old sophomore, it’s always a foot-long Spicy Italian sub, on white bread.
“Subway, it’s my favorite. You get to pick what you want,” said Conway, first in line at a recent lunch-period crush.
Others are predictable, too. Most times.
“There’s a lot of regulars. But then, they’ll randomly switch their sandwich on us,” said server Ashley Hinckle, a Heritage senior who tracks schoolmates’ habits. “They’ll try anything,” she said, while parceling out lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and other veggies on request.
The Subway sandwich shop is, today, nearly ubiquitous. It’s hard to drive five minutes in the city without passing a franchise. They’re now more abundant — at 32,000 outlets worldwide — than McDonald’s restaurants.
Still, teenagers at Heritage, Mountain View High School and three Evergreen district middle schools are breaking new bread, er, ground this fall: Evergreen is the first K-12 school system in Washington to have full-blown Subway shops.
The trailblazing comes at the start of a new, five-year contract with the Chartwell’s food service company to feed the district’s 27,000 students.
Evergreen joins about five dozen school districts in the United States where Subway shops can be found, including some in Anchorage, Alaska; Las Vegas; Illinois; Texas; Virginia; and Florida.
Karen Steinhardt, a Chartwell’s manager in charge of Evergreen’s food supply, said it made sense to add the popular submarine sandwiches.
Options to perk up flagging a la carte sales are limited by new federal and state rules that push lower-fat, more nutritious items, she said. The search was on to replace brand-name tacos, burritos and personal-size pizzas previously sold.
“What could we offer that was nutritionally sound?” officials asked. “And, of all the fast foods we could think of, Subway was the healthiest,” Steinhardt said.
In September, the two high schools and Pacific, Shahala and Wy’east middle schools started serving fresh-made Subway goods. If results meet goals, other Evergreen high schools and middle schools will follow suit.
Corporate Subway managers in Portland will watch to see if more expansion in Washington and Oregon schools makes sense. As with all outlets, the firm earns commission on each school-based shop.
So far, business is lukewarm — but then, a la carte sales have cooled districtwide, Steinhardt said.
“Sales are about where we thought they’d be,” she said.
Students pay regular Subway menu prices. They avoid sales tax but can’t redeem coupons. Servers received full Subway training but don’t make hot sandwiches: Toasting would keep students waiting during hectic lunch periods. Thay also can’t sell sodas (still available at student-run stores) or sprinkle bacon chunks, per school nutrition guidelines. Students may order chips or a cookie on the side, though.
Heritage customers such as Carrie Czmowski, 16, and Ashlee Bradbury, 15, say they appreciate the change from a taco-burger-fries routine.
The two sophomores ordered a ham foot-long loaded with veggies, specially tailored to their tastes.
“I like my food spicy; she doesn’t,” Bradbury said. Like many others, they planned to split their sub, a decent bargain at about $2.50 per person.
“If I eat here, it’s Subway,” Bradbury said.
That raises a point: Evergreen allows juniors and seniors to leave campus for lunch. Younger students also can grab a meal elsewhere on their way to and from campus. There’s a glut of fast-food joints on Northeast 117th Avenue, and other nearby Subway stores.
Steinhardt knows they’re a lure many students can’t resist.
“No matter what we do, they want to get off campus for 55 minutes,” she said.
Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.
