School Food Service has a Vital Job

by Sabrina Phillips

We have all eaten school lunch at some point in our lives. Some may not like what they have and complain, while others are thankful even if they may not enjoy it as much as they would like. For some, they waste all of their food because it isn’t “good enough”. Others, that may be the only meal they have.

School lunches have changed a lot over the years. They have much stricter regulations due to new government rules. They also have a specific budget they can’t go over. They have a yearly budget, but they also have a calorie budget that is daily and weekly. They can’t exceed a specific amount of calories per day, or at the end of the week. Just to plan a meal they have to follow specific regulations on whether it would pass the state inspection, if it follows the sanitation rules, follows food safety of public instruction. They have to count everything and keep production records; they also have to be ServSafe in order to serve food in the school district. The state comes for inspection twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring.  

Since Potosi is such a small school there are only three people who work in the kitchen, Jen, Sarah, and Pam. Jen says they are very great helpers. Students are fed well at Potosi Schools; they have ala carte items they can choose from if they would like. On average the school serves 110 students at breakfast and 280 students at lunch every day. Jen comes in at 6:30 to get everything ready for breakfast, Pam and Sarah come in at 8:15 and help Jen; they typically use batch cooking.  The elementary eats first, then high school, and finally middle school. Every group gets fresh food that hasn’t been sitting out.

Most of the students are very polite and use their manners. However, Jen wishes they said more about it; she would like feedback on what they like, or what they don’t like. There is a bit of waste that is involved because some students feel like they have to take certain things.  The high school students take full advantage of the ala carte; they feel like they have more choices that way. However, the elementary is a bit different. They have more students who are in need because they have a low-income family. Luckily Potosi Schools have a free and reduced lunch program that you can ask if you qualify for and the state pays the school for those people.  Since Potosi is such a small school we only need the cafeteria workers to be ServSafe. If we had a bigger school, we would need a dietician or a nutritionist.

A big plus of being a school cafeteria worker is you don’t have to work weekends, holidays, and you get to see happy kids everyday. You have a very big impact on kids, and Jen, Sarah, Pam realise it.