Students, faculty, staff and special guests were on hand for the Sept. 13 blessing and opening of the new SA Courtyard Café at St. Anthony High School in Long Beach.Construction of the Café began last June and was made possible by the generosity of John and Dorothy Shea, the Dan Murphy Foundation and St. Anthony High School Foundation, which jointly provided major financial support for the project. School president Gina Rushing Maguire kicked off the grand opening by welcoming special guests Dorothy Shea, project manager Dan O’Melveny, Franciscan Brother Hilarion O’Connor, Marge Graf, architect J.P. Darling, and builder John Rutter of EPI Construction. Father Jose Magana, pastor of St. Anthony Church, performed the blessing, which was followed by an official ribbon-cutting ceremony by Dorothy Shea to launch the café.Prior to this project the high school had no on-site food service aside from vending machines. As such, the SA Courtyard Café had been a long-awaited and needed addition to the campus. St. Anthony’s former “science building” was used for the construction of a new kitchen. Originally constructed in 1914, the building had been leased to a charter middle school in 2001 and was recently recovered to help accommodate the school’s increasing enrollment. The architectural integrity of the historic building was maintained, and lunch is served through its original windows into the courtyard of the school. A new cement deck and stairs with an adjoining ramp were added to provide a platform for students to walk up to the windows with serving counters. Inside the building, two former classrooms were joined to create space for a large commercial-grade kitchen, which features ovens, microwaves, a large commercial cooktop, over-sized refrigerators, and counter space for food preparation and service. {gallery width=100 height=100}gallery/2013/1004/spstanthony/{/gallery}
