Our school’s lunch ladies serve more than 500 students every day. Most students know the lunch ladies for serving their meals, but they do more than just hand out food. The staff—Ellen Dew, Holly Clark, Pam Fleetwood, and Angie Cochran—arrives early to prepare breakfast, ensuring everything is ready before the students arrive. They organize ingredients, preheat equipment, and arrange serving stations so it runs smoothly. After that, they start preparing for lunch by around 9:40 a.m. They continue cooking throughout the day until the end of lunch to keep food fresh.
The lunch is served to students from six different periods. The staff structure their routine and rotate their roles to efficiently share the responsibilities. Some serve food on the line and handle the cooking while others work as the cashiers. According to Ellen Dew, the kitchen manager, they batch cook throughout the day to make sure the food stays fresh each period. She said, “We batch cook each period, so the food is fresh every period.” The sixth lunch period is the busiest time of the day with more than a hundred people going through the line. Despite the volume of food they serve, they still rotate positions daily—working as cashiers, serving, or cooking.
The lunch ladies also have to adjust to unexpected changes, such as field trips that change the number of students eating there. On days with fewer students, they have to change portions to avoid food waste, while on busier days, they have to make more food on short notice. Dew said, “The majority of the time, we don’t know if they have a field trip,” so they often come as a surprise. She said, “But when we do, they usually ask for a different lunch, like a bagged lunch.” The staff has to stay flexible when preparing food based on the school’s needs. Our principal Mr. Pethel, a regular diner in the cafeteria, said, “Our lunch ladies work really hard. It is important to them that our lunch is prepared well and that it is nutritional but also tastes good as well. They do a great job of keeping the kitchen clean and preparing the food.” The new federal guidelines have also changed the way the food is prepared. Dew said, “We can’t have salt like we used to; we have to meet the federal guidelines.” Despite these rules, the staff continues working to make meals for students.
Even after the last lunch is served, their work isn’t done. Cleaning up the kitchen is a tedious task that takes them about an hour. The staff scrubs countertops, washes large trays, sanitizes cooking equipment, and gets rid of leftover food to keep a clean environment for the next day. They finish cleaning around 2:15. Along with cooking and serving, Dew also manages the paperwork and stays late if another staff member is out. She said, “Sometimes I stay over when I shouldn’t.” She keeps the kitchen running and ensures that everything works smoothly. The work she does behind the counter is just as important as what happens in the cafeteria.
