Holly Cunningham Takes Fresh Approach to Westminister's Lunch Program

With , the school’s administration is taking the opportunity to totally revamp the school’s lunch program. Leading this initiative is Holly Cunningham, a Westminster alumni and the CEO of Hollyberry Catering.

Hollyberry Catering is a Webster Groves-based outfit voted favorite caterer by readers of Sauce Magazine three years in a row. A new offshoot of the company, Campus Cuisine by Hollyberry, has been created by Cunningham to provide the students and faculty of Westminster with healthy, balanced meals.  

Previously, Cunningham created the alumni council at Westminster and served on the school’s advancement committee. Through that involvement she knew what resources would be available at the new location, and she wanted her company to be part of the school’s new lunch program. In March, she began the process of putting in a bid for her company to be the school’s new food-service provider, and the bid was accepted.

Cunningham said she has no intention of serving typical, greasy school lunches, and everything in her background indeed suggests that her approach to this project will be a bold, fresh one. 

Cunningham, who grew up in South County, was baking on a Holly Hobbie oven as early as age 5. Baking remained a passion throughout her formative years, she said. After graduating from Westminster in 1993, she went to the University of Mississippi. After college, she worked for an electronics company where she sold phone systems.

“I loved the job, and I loved selling,” she said. “But I wasn’t passionate about it. I wanted to find something I was passionate about.”

With that attitude, she founded Hollyberry Catering in 1998.

Her business, which has been featured nationally on the Rachael Ray Show, now employs eight people full time, but will soon be doubling its full-time staff to accommodate Westminster’s needs. Cunningham is bent on giving Westminster students both what they want and what is going to be healthy for them. She stresses that healthy food does not have to be expensive.

“I realize there has to be a lower price point, I can’t be charging these kids $10 a meal every day, however, there are some things you can do and choices you can make to make things healthier,” Cunningham said. “For instance, it’s not that difficult to make vegetables taste good, it’s not expensive to make them taste good. Actually, sometimes it’s more expensive to process them, pack them, add preservatives and then resell them.”

Cunningham said ever since her twin girls were infants she has taken an interest in nutrition for young people and has had a passion for finding creative ways to get young people to want to eat healthy. She said that, simply put, she will feed Westminster students the same way she feeds her kids. She is not going to just serve what she feels the students should eat, she is going to make every effort to find out what they want, she said. 

“From the very start, I’m going to be asking them, not telling them, ‘What do you want us to serve?’” Cunningham said. “Now, obviously, we can’t do pizza and candy bars and Mountain Dew every day, but (I’m going to ask) ‘If you want to be a healthy person what is it that you want to eat?’...I’m going to go into it with an open mind, and I hope the students do, too.”

Feedback is something Cunningham values highly, and in that vein, Campus Cuisine will be holding tasting previews for teachers, parents and student leaders in the weeks before school begins on Aug. 22. 

Cunningham plans for the relationship between Campus Cuisine and Westminster to be much stronger than the typical one between schools and their food-service providers. Cunningham said a student-run garden is being looked into, and she would also like to bring in local chefs to talk about and expose kids to different types of cuisine and the importance of healthy eating. 

“It’s going to be much more than just being the lunch lady,” Cunningham said. “And that may mean trying new things, or that may mean fresh, baked cookies or a barbecue one day that’s partially cooked with the kids. That’s really how I want this atmosphere. To me, this is going to be much more of a partnership.”

And Westminster’s Director of Advancement Zach Clark said the school administration wants the relationship to be a partnership, too.

“We are really excited about partnering with Hollyberry because we are really interested in taking our food service for students to a whole new level,” Clark said. “I think a lot of schools struggle to provide really good meals that are also healthy, but I think we have a partner in Holly. I think you’re going to see a lot of great food and a lot of healthy choices.” 

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