When people go to lunch everyday, most aren’t thinking about the effort that goes in behind the scenes. They’re always focused on getting lunch first or on their peers. However, SHS has an amazing, underappreciated kitchen staff who put in a ton of hard work and effort into feeding around 225 kids a day.
SHS has five amazing people that come and run the kitchen everyday, and each of them play a role in providing students with breakfast and lunch. All the staff in the kitchen enjoy making connections with the students and getting to know who they are as individuals. Routine is incredibly important while running a school kitchen according to Andrea Moore, the food director in the kitchen because if Bobbi Debuano or Pam Sterle, the kitchen director, didn’t have a routine in the morning then none of the students would be fed on time for lunch.
They have a wonderful team in the kitchen. Kitchen staff member Margaret Bessey, who is currently a “float” in the kitchen, not only helps with lunch at the high school, but also helps provide lunch for two other schools in the district: Crest Academy and Horizons Exploratory Academy.
Head cook Bobbi Debuano makes sure the main course is done “in a timely manner for everyone.” She does this from seven in the morning until about 11. This gives Debuano close to four hours to make about 225 lunches for us students. Of course she has the help of Bessey, Sterle and Kyle Medlin, but this still does not leave a lot of time for them while they’re making quality food for students.
Every single day, they have to follow guidelines or restrictions. There are kids in SHS that can’t have certain foods, and the lunch ladies have to make sure they are following what people’s doctors say they can have. They then have to make sure everyone gets half a cup of fruit or vegetables. The kitchen staff also have to keep it under a certain calorie limit and sodium requirement.As well as that, all the prices of food and materials needed for service have gone up. For example, a case of paper boats for serving has increased by $14 a case.
The kitchen staff only has one request for students currently: please stop putting gum on the lunch trays. They ask this because they do not enjoy having to scrape gum off of the trays. They would also appreciate it if students would no longer throw away the forks because it gets expensive when they have to keep rebuying something that’s supposed to be reusable.
