As students make their way through the lunch line every day, they are met with the same faces behind the counter. Despite how well acquainted many are with these familiar figures, what they don’t see is the work that goes on behind the scenes to get food on their trays.
Members of the kitchen staff often begin their work day before most students even get to the school at 7 a.m. Despite a large portion of the student body eating school lunch, food service assistant Mia Henderson expresses that very few of those students understand the work that goes into providing their lunches.
“It is hard work to supply meals for 1000 kids,” Henderson said. It’s not just throwing everything in the oven real quick. A Lot more work goes into it than what they actually see.”
For every food displayed and offered in the cafeteria, numerous steps go into supplying, preparing and paying for them. To have enough food stocked for the students every day, Henderson says they have to unload six to eight pallets of food taller than them into the kitchen for a week’s worth of meals.
According to Director of nutrition Julie Henry, it can take up to months of preparation for every time they expand the menu.
“For each new item, we see if we can find a version of that product that meets our nutritional requirements and have a taste test. If it is good, then we see if we can get it at a price that fits our budget, and THEN we have to find a vendor who can supply it to us,” Henry said.
To keep up with the sizable menu and large student body, the kitchen staff splits up the responsibilities by food groups. Due to this method, every member of the kitchen, like Sierra Larson has daily tasks from creating the prepackaged meals to cooking the hot lunches.
“There’s a lot of baking, a lot of keeping track of numbers and rotating stock to make sure the freshest food is being served,” Larson said.
Their responsibilities aren’t done after cooking and preparing meals for the students. After students are served, staff members spend the second-half of their shift cleaning up and replenishing the kitchen so lunch can continue to run smoothly for the following days.
“After lunch every day I go refill the chip racks and there is of course a lot cleaning after you get everything done,” Larson said
Since most of their time is spent preparing for these meals, lunchtime and second chance breakfast only make up a small portion of their work day. Despite this, Food Service Manager Tracy Pobjoy says she gets students in their most appreciative mood.
“You guys are at a point where you’re hungry, and you’re happy to be fed. So we get you guys for the best three seconds as you walk past us,” Pobjoy said. “Overall we’re generally really appreciated, and it’s a great group of kids.”
Some of the kitchen staff, like Ikuko Fox, feel that over the months of serving the students and interacting with them every day, she has formed a bond with many of them.
“It’s kind of a bond and our staff bonds are getting stronger and stronger and then with the kids; the kids know me and I know them well too. So it kind of feels like it’s more and more of a family,” Fox said.
