Back to School
Instagram post from Goleta USD about our Etto O's
One of the original missions when we started Etto was to feed kids and provide Etto pasta to schools. Our kids' school, Children's House in Atascadero, was our first one. This is where we learned that long pasta like spaghetti was not a good option. The little ones covered in sauce made a big mess that was undeniably cute to us, but not so much for their teachers or parents. After that we decided to keep the pasta shapes on the smaller side and the parents, teachers and kids were very happy. Smaller shapes offer easier bites for smaller mouths, but also result in more efficient cooking in large batches.
From this early start we slowly added a couple more schools, like SLO Coastal with Erin Primer. She leads the charge on providing as many local ingredients as possible to her schools including incorporating their own culinary garden at Laguna Middle School in SLO. In Shandon, the school dropped pasta from their menu until we came along and now reports are that Etto pasta day is the most popular day for lunch and offered often.
A couple weeks ago at the barber shop the barber from a couple chairs over said his kids were looking forward to having our pasta at Kermit King in Paso. Since we usually just talk about football at the barber shop(frustration with last season, excuses about the current one and of course reasons for optimism for next year) this was quite a diversion. I tried my best to act cool with a thanks and we quickly switched back to football. I'll admit that I was proud to hear that parents were genuinely excited that kids are eating Etto at school - even the dudes in the barbershop. It turns out Etto will be served at lunch tomorrow too at Kermit King.
This school year has marked another chapter for us, as we've just added Santa Clara, Anaheim, Ventura and hopefully Richmond next. Some of these are very large school districts with challenging logistics. In addition to the other further flung districts like Goleta (see the picture up top from Goleta with Etto O's), Santa Cruz and Placerville that got on the Etto train last year, we will be busy. Nearly every local school in SLO county features Etto pasta on a fairly regular basis. Hopefully your kids are enjoying their school lunches this year and it'd truly gratifying to be a part of them. Don't be surprised next time you talk to a kid and they can discuss the nuance and finer points of craft pasta.
