Behind the counter: The Lunch People
By Amber Stentzel
The hard work and dedication that goes into the making of school lunches often goes unnoticed by students. It may seem as though they just warm it up and serve it, but there is more that goes into preparing healthy, well-planned meals. The cooks in the kitchen are the ones who make it all possible. As a school, we must take time to fully understand and appreciate all they do.
Picture of Annie serving food taken by Amber Stentzel.
Pat, the manager, has been working for the Owasso school district for 25 years. She started working so she could be closer to her kid.
“I wanted to be off whenever he was off and not have to worry about snow days or weekends,” Pat expressed.
Instantly falling in love with the job, Pat decided to keep working even after her kid left high school. They promoted her to manager quickly, and she hasn’t missed a school year since.
Picture of Angie, manager in training, on the left and Pat, manager, on the right taken by Amber Stentzel.
Pat does a lot of the paperwork and numbers. She calculates which lunches will be served the most and ensures enough for everyone. It’s also important that there isn’t too much waste at the end of the day.
“The biggest part is having to go through and figure out what the kids are going to eat,” Pat sighed.
The amount of time it takes her to prepare paperwork for the cooks to know how much food to make can be exhausting. One thing she finds helpful is that the students are “creatures of habit,” which makes it easier to make sure there are enough of certain meals.
“You want to make sure the first kid in line and the last kid in line have the same food options.”
The lunch people get to the kitchen early to make sure they get everything done on time. They prepare the meals in advance and make sure they know the menus for the week. Each cook has a different prepping job.
“Our pizzas are made from scratch,” Pat described. “Maria makes all 25 pizzas every day.”
“My grill line— she [Veronica] prepares for about 120 servings a day,” she explained.
“We are serving about 550-600 kids a day and that's just for lunch; we also do about 100 breakfasts,” Pat said confidently.
Pat described how they make food for the East Campus, and also for the West Campus and the Ram Academy.
“We not only make lunch for here (East Campus) but we also make food for across the street,” clarified Pat. “They don't have a full kitchen over there, so there are some things they can't cook. They have to depend on us.”
They haul the food in hot boxes in a big truck to the other campus.
Throughout the interview, Pat emphasized the appreciation she has for her staff. She talked about how none of these meals would be possible without the staff. Each staff member has a part, and together, they can get all 600 meals done in time.
“If I didn't have my staff, I would be nothing,” Pat smiled.
“It is just time-consuming, cause you only have a couple of hours to get everything done,” she reflected. “But as long as you have the staff, there is nothing hard about it.”
As Pat described, the kitchen staff put in so much time and effort, ensuring that the students can have a good lunch because they truly care.
“Some might think they are just here for a job, but most of my ladies do this because they want to,” Pat glowed.
“I just want the kids to appreciate these ladies (and Xavier) who give up their time to come in here and do this because they work very hard at it,” Pat beamed.
All these wonderful people work hard each day to ensure each student has a proper meal. We must acknowledge and appreciate all of them and their commitment. These are just the staff in the Ram Cafe. There are more people in the small cafeteria, West Campus, and all around the district who work just as hard. When getting your school lunch, be sure to say thank you!