Kitchen staff serves students, not just lunch
JENNIFER DITLEVSON HAGLUND/DAILY FORUM
Alyssa Carmichael prepares glaze for the cinnamon buns. Carmichael works as a cashier at Maryville High School, but the kitchen staff work together sharing different roles to get the job done.
The kitchen smells like cinnamon rolls, and there’s gravy bubbling on the food line for the biscuits and sausage at Maryville High School.
Before the students empty their trays and leave for first period, the staff are already putting pans of chicken nuggets and pots of chili in the ovens.
Kitchen staff members at Maryville High School start their days by 7 a.m., preparing breakfast for the early risers. By 11:27 a.m., the first set of high school students line up to take their lunches. At 1 p.m., it’s time to get ready for the next day’s meals. Several members of the staff call it a day after cleanup at 1:30 p.m.
“We keep pretty busy,” said Sandy Wilmes, who has more than 25 years of experience in the school kitchens for the Maryville R-II School District. “We try to do the best we can do to make sure the kids get good food.”
While Wilmes works on getting things into the oven, Mel Schluter and Amanda Diggs slice fruits and vegetables for the salad bar. Alyssa Carmichael finishes her cashier duties from breakfast and begins to make frosting for the cinnamon rolls. Darcie Ebrecht comes in at 9 a.m., and she stocks the condiment and drink cooler.
This isn’t what they do every day because they all work together filling in where they are needed in order to get three different entrees and various side items ready in time.
According to Wilmes, since the district began working with Lunchtime Solutions, Inc., her duties have changed. She cooks fewer homemade meals and focuses on prep work. Much of the food is shipped to the school frozen or precooked.
Kendra Pickering, who is the food service director with Lunchtime Solutions, said 2012 USDA regulations restrict the amount of home cooking the staff can do. Limits on carbohydrates, calories, sodium, and sugar make it difficult to monitor the nutritional composition of staff creations.
Lunchtime Solutions is a food service management company based in Sioux City, South Dakota, that works with school districts in South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri.
Having a predetermined menu, however, doesn’t prevent all creativity in meal making. On days when the kitchen serves local produce and specialty pastas, staffers have more autonomy. Vegetables uncommon to the Midwest diet like edamame and jicama make it to the salad bar, but Pickering said it can be a little too weird for many students.
“We try to open their experiences a bit,” Pickering said. “But the students definitely lean toward the chicken nuggets.”
All of the staff members said crowd pleasers on the menu depend on the age group they’re serving. Across all of the schools, they said, chicken nuggets are the favorite.
Schluter said the staff has a good relationship with the students. According to Schluter, “lunch lady” isn’t a bad name to her, but most students address the staff by name and ask them what they think of the food.
“Everything is actually pretty good,” said Ebrecht.
Wilmes, Schluter, and Ebrecht said the job appealed to them because of the schedule, but the rapport they have with the students means a lot to them.
Wilmes has worked in the kitchen long enough to earn the affectionate nickname “mom” from the students, but her co-workers said Wilmes makes it known that “grandma” is unacceptable.
The staff will joke with each other and nod about the special few students who give them a hard time, but overall, they have been pleased with the students’ manners.
“They’re good kids,” Wilmes said.
Schluter said her children warned her about the problems she might have with rudeness when she took the job. She was, however, surprised to find the opposite.
“When they’re putting their trays away, they always say ‘thank you’ to me,” said Schluter.
Wilmes said she wanted the community to know the job is not just about serving meals but serving the students.
JENNIFER DITLEVSON HAGLUND/DAILY FORUM
Sandy Wilmes and Alyssa Carmichael frost cinnamon buns for Maryville High School students who eat breakfast.
JENNIFER DITLEVSON HAGLUND/DAILY FORUM
Mel Schluter and Darcie Ebrecht load the cooler at Maryville High School before the lunchtime rush. Ebrecht is a 2002 alumna of MHS, and she said she recognizes some of the students who are younger siblings of her classmates and friends as they go through the line.
