HRA Celebrates Half a Million Meals Served in the Mary and Larry Pope Dining Hall

On March 26, 2026, Hampton Roads Academy marked half a million meals served in the Mary and Larry Pope Dining Hall since the state-of-the-art facility opened its doors in January 2020. This remarkable figure includes only lunches that students have enjoyed on regular school days. If one adds the many special events that the dining hall team also caters and the daily lunches served throughout the summer camp season, the total is even more incredible.

In honor of this historic achievement, from March 23 through 27, Executive Chef Uwe Schluszas prepared favorites from the initial weeks of lunch service in the dining hall—elevated offerings that, he recalled, caught parents by surprise in those early days. Now, they have become the norm.

The week’s menu included beef and vegetarian chili with all the fixings, chicken pot pie on a cheddar biscuit, roasted pork loin with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans, stuffed peppers, and a grilled chicken flatbread topped with tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, onions, and arugula. As a special treat, students enjoyed an assortment of snacks, including cookies, muffins, and yogurt, as the school crossed the 500,000 meal mark on Thursday.

The celebratory week was a tribute not only to Schluszas, who has helmed the dining hall from its inception, but to the entire hardworking staff that makes a consistently exceptional dining experience possible. The school extends its heartfelt gratitude and congratulations to Sous Chef Jesse Rowe, line cooks Melinda Calloway, Tiny Liverman, and Quiseam Perry, and facilities team members Tony Lawrence, Jr., and Shymil Robinson. Thanks are also due to facilities coordinator India Getchell, who was instrumental in helping launch the dining hall’s operations as a member of the team at the time of its opening.

When quantified, the dining hall’s output over the past six years is staggering. According to Schluszas, half a million lunches translate into 28,800 pounds of broccoli, 51,200 pounds of bananas, 230,400 apples, nearly 12 tons of cheese and yogurt, more than 28 tons of meat, and 18,600 gallons of milk and chocolate milk—a volume roughly equivalent to the average residential swimming pool.

But the contribution of Schluszas’ team to the HRA community cannot be measured in pounds and gallons alone.

“The milestone of half a million lunches served really puts into perspective what an incredible impact Chef Uwe has on our school, day in and day out,” said Head of School Jay Lasley. “Nutritious meals right here on campus make it possible for our students to learn as much as they can and for our faculty and staff to do their best work. Our lunch program is second to none and an understated, yet remarkable, part of daily life at HRA.”

Crowning a Distinguished Career

2026 represents a landmark year not only for the Pope Dining Hall, but also for Schluszas himself. On June 26, HRA’s executive chef will mark 50 years since he started in the culinary field as an apprentice.

Originally from Germany, Schluszas has worked in kitchens in Switzerland, England, Bermuda, Texas, Georgia, and finally Virginia. Before joining the Academy in August 2019, he served for 19 years at the Kingsmill Resort, mainly as a pastry chef.

When Peter Mertz, who preceded Lasley as Head of School (2011-2023), asked him why he chose to leave the resort after such a long tenure, Schluszas replied, “My last years are not about money. They need to matter.”

HRA, he explained, has given him the freedom to explore his full range of culinary talents and introduce young people to international dishes that have inspired him throughout his globe-trotting career.

“I’d rather have a kid ask me what’s for lunch than a bride tell me, ‘It was a great wedding cake,’” the chef said. “There is no agenda with our students. They tell you if they like it, and they tell you if they don’t, and that’s the end of the story. If they like it, then we do it again. If they don’t, we don’t. It’s that simple.”

A Commitment to Quality, Choice, and Discovery

Schluszas insists that lunch should be an occasion for students to enjoy wholesome, restaurant-caliber food prepared with the highest-quality ingredients and discover a new favorite that they would not encounter in any ordinary cafeteria.

“Who am I in competition with?” he said. “It’s not the McDonald’s of the world.” While most schools operate under the assumption that young palates crave only a narrow range of flavors and thus offer such familiar choices as hamburgers, pizza, and chicken nuggets nearly every week, Schluszas crafts his menus based on his confidence that novelty will resonate with students. Even in HRA’s Lower School, he observed, students leap at options like chicken tikka masala, embracing the opportunity to try new dishes.

Between inspired daily hot meal offerings, a salad bar with 23 items, a deli station, and fresh fruit and yogurt, the dining hall provides a stunning array of options to explore. Schluszas explained that he wants students to lean into their curiosity and experiment at lunchtime each day.

The chef commented that he never tires of seeing students sample foods that are completely new to them—or hearing from parents who report that their children asked for meals at home that they had discovered through one of his lunches.

“When we make a new item, and they come back for seconds, I’m doing a happy dance in the kitchen,” Schluszas said. For him, there is no clearer sign that “we hit it.”

Of the myriad of dishes he serves, from Italian pasta and meatballs and English fish and chips to Caribbean pollo guisado and Chinese pork lo mein, Schluszas cannot pick a single favorite. However, he noted, the meals he loves to cook all incorporate a variety of textures, exciting tastes, fresh ingredients, and plenty of color.

Gratitude and Pride

In addition to daily lunch service, Schluszas consistently looks forward to the many HRA community events for which he prepares scrumptious pastries, gourmet hors d’oeuvres, and unforgettable meals, from the Tidewater Table & Auction and faculty holiday happy hours to the Homecoming alumni reunion party and the biannual Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Breakfast. After all, he commented, a special meal makes for a special occasion.

Still, for the executive chef, there is no greater joy than experiencing than the gratitude of students on an ordinary school day. The most gratifying moments, he said, are when students compliment his lunches during a chance encounter in the hallway or write him an unsolicited thank-you note.

“You can’t beat that, because you know it’s an honest response,” he remarked with a smile.

As Schluszas’ team approached the 500,000-meal milestone, students’ honest—and incredibly enthusiastic—reviews rolled it.

“My favorite has to be when Chef makes the tomato soup and grilled cheese,” said eighth grader Madeleine Wells ’30.

According to junior Aaron Carlson ’27, “Chef makes a mean jambalaya. That’s my favorite meal here.”

“Chicken pot pie,” said senior Luke James ’26—“that has to take the cake!”

Humbled and delighted by his celebratory reception during his time at HRA, Schluszas could come to only one conclusion: “I should’ve done this years ago!”