Butterfly Bistro takes flight at Medford's Missituk

The tension at the Missituk School was palpable Monday morning, April 27, as students arrived back at school from April vacation to find taped up windows and doorways, keeping them out of their cafeteria.

“They thought the cafeteria was broken into or something needed to be fixed,” said Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Galusi. “The [staff] even had breakfast ready for the kids in the foyer.”

So what was going on?

During school vacation week, the Missituk School cafeteria underwent a dramatic transformation, thanks to a planned update by a Worcester company called Imaginate Your Space. The update didn’t just include a bit of paint, but an entire makeover that promotes the identity of the school community and its monarch butterfly mascot.

Galusi said she was “blown away” the moment she saw the completed project.

“When they called the classes down, I was standing over there watching and it just gave me goosebumps,” Galusi said. “I was talking to teachers who have been in the building since it opened and I saw some of them had tears in their eyes. My favorite part was watching the faces of the students, the smiles and open mouths.”

OK, so she knew it was happening. But Galusi said seeing 2D plans was way different than walking into the cafeteria and seeing the finished product.

“When I saw the plans, in my head it looked like decals,” she said. “This is a 3D art piece that encapsulates the history of Medford with the Mystic River across the entire cafeteria. How can you not get goosebumps?”

How it happened

During a March 16 budget update to the School Committee, school finance officials showed the school lunch revolving account had $1,572,067 in it. The account is one that must be specifically spent on updates to the lunch program, whether it’s the physical footprints of the cafeterias themselves or maintenance or other lunch-related programs and features.

It was from this account that the Missituk project was funded.

Food Services Director Retta Smith said the idea for the project came up around last October when food service directors in Beverly and Chelmsford reached out and let her know about the work being done in their districts.

“I went to the company’s website and saw the transformations,” Smith said. “It wasn’t just them coming in and making it look better. It was way different.”

Smith started meeting with other school officials about what Medford could do and where to start. Because the Missituk was on the smaller side and there were no activities planned at the school for the April 2026 vacation week, it was the perfect candidate.

Principal Nancy Sherman-Hudson said Smith brought in her staff to talk about doing “a little touch up.”

Pretty soon, the project included the history of the Missituk name, facts on the Mystic River and its lifecycle, an I Spy game of the wildlife that inhabits the river and, of course, lots of butterflies.

That was Sherman-Hudson’s idea.

When she became principal, she was looking for a way to rebrand the school. And the monarch butterfly was the perfect way to bring it all together.

But even Sherman-Hudson wasn’t sure just how Smith’s project would work.

“When it started, I was looking at the incomplete version,” she said. “But I was here last week and I was watching it as it unfolded. Each day, I could see the transformation.”

The work actually started after school on Friday, April 18. It ended on Sunday, April 26.

“My assistant principal saw it for the first time when she came in this morning,” Sherman-Hudson said. “She was speechless.”

And when the kids came in?

“I was holding back tears,” Sherman-Hudson said. “They saw the first pillar and their jaws fell open, their eyes were wide. That’s the joy right there.”

What’s next?

The Missituk is the very first of the city’s schools to undergo a cafeteria update, but not the last.

Smith said the plan is to do the rest of the elementary schools, as well as the Andrews and McGlynn middle schools.

She said the design process takes a few weeks, depending on what the schools want to do. The actual project takes about five to 10 days, depending on the size of the buildings.

And there’s also the procurement process and putting the projects out to bid.

But, if all goes well, Smith said the Roberts is probably up next followed by the Brooks. However, the schedule depends on when the bid process is finished and if the buildings are being used over the summer.

Smith said McGlynn and Andrews will be last on the list.

The change in the cafeterias and the wide-eyed responses from students and staff is something School Committee members Jenny Graham, Paul Ruseau, Erika Reinfeld and Jessica Parks got to see first-hand on April 27.

“You can have a cafeteria without anything special and it does what it’s supposed to do,” said Graham. “But this is the kind of thing that is part of a bigger picture.”

She added it brings a spark to the environment and, hopefully, shows the community how special a space can be.

“It shows how the environment is important, it’s enriching, it’s respecting the area, and it makes you feel a goodness on the inside,” Sherman-Hudson said. “It shows our students we want to give them a relaxed atmosphere to relax and eat in. They know this is their space.”