It's an exciting year at Martin Meylin Middle School.

Among the many new renovations at the school is its brand-new food court, which is greatly expanded and now offers seemingly endless lunch combinations for students.

In the past, students had only two main entree options at lunchtime. Now, there are brand new stations within the food court that provide great diversity for students to choose from.

When a student enters the food court, they'll have the option to pick an entree from the returning main line and alternate line, along with the new "Pioneer Pizza" station, "Lampeter Grille" sandwich station and salad station. The new food court closely resembles its counterpart at Lampeter-Strasburg High School.

"We have many more options," said Allyson Brain, kitchen manager at Martin Meylin. "We're modeling it so that as they progress through L-S, they get more and more options. Our high school is our top-shelf, and they're building towards that the whole time."

At the Pioneer Pizza station, there will be cheese and pepperoni pizza every day. There will also be a third option that rotates depending on the day. Gone are the days of the circular Tony's pizzas; all the pizza at the station is made fresh, in-house on the day that it is served.

Similarly, there will always be three unique hot sandwich items at the Lampeter Grille. With the three options at both new stations, along with the existing options on the two main lines, as well as prepackaged entree options like Uncrustables and salads, kids should not have any problems finding something appetizing to them each day.

"They're guaranteed to find something they like with so many different options," said Karen Schmertz, assistant food services director. "We're very proud."

Each lunch includes an entree and up to two fruits, vegetables and a drink. Also new in the food court is a drink cooler with a sliding door, which is not fully stocked at the moment.

Construction for the renovations was completed over the summer. New signs hang above each station that were designed by Anne Harnish, who serves as the district's community relations coordinator.

In the cafeteria, students are now presented with circular tables, like at the high school. The long but skinny tables that once filled the room are no more. Also, the seldom-used stage in the cafeteria is gone, replaced with room for more tables.

A similar renovation is planned at Hans Herr Elementary School, but dates for the project are not set in stone at this time.

Each morning, the food services team at Martin Meylin comes in at 6 a.m. to get ready for the day, which starts with free breakfast for every student, regardless of income status. That program was temporarily available for all students in 2020 but was worked into the state budget permanently following the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Free universal breakfast," Brain said. "Lunch preparations start around 8 a.m., but my team is in at 6 and 6:30 a.m. because of universal breakfast, which we cannot promote enough."