Central High School provides breakfast during the entire school year and serves lunch that is free for all students. The women behind our cafeteria gates spend their days prepping, cooking, and cleaning to ensure every student gets a hot meal.
Ms. Paula Deck starts her day off very early; she arrives at school at 6 AM and begins preparing breakfast. Ms. Mary Lowe arrives next at 7:30 AM, and then Ms. Stephanie Shelksohn last.
“I don’t come in until 8 AM, so I’m the latest one to come in. I plan out all the food for the next day; that’s the first thing I do,” Ms. Stephanie said.
Lunch for these ladies starts early. Ms. Stephanie, Ms. Brandi, and Ms. Mary have lunch at 9:30 AM, eating a tray of what we are going to have for lunch. At 10 AM, Ms. Kelly, Ms. Kim, and Ms. Paula take their lunches before preparing to serve the 5 lunches for students to be able to get free lunches.
“In order for us to have free lunches and free breakfast, we have to follow the guidelines of getting a fruit and a vegetable. So that part of my job sucks because I know a lot of kids don’t want that,” Ms. Paula said.
They all have shared responsibilities, but each person is responsible for their own tasks.
“I am responsible for making the wraps and the cold sandwiches. I run the register at breakfast and the main register at lunch,” Ms. Paula said.
“I prep and put out the salad bar, prep pizzas for the next day, and run the register. I keep things going in between lines and restocking and filling dishes, clean fruit, a lot of little things,” Ms. Mary said.
When lunch is over, Ms. Stephanie washes dishes, cleans tables, prepares the pans of fruit, wipes out everything, cleans the counters, and puts dishes away before going home. Differently, Ms. Paula ends her day by balancing the registers, filling out production records, and making any deposits before leaving at 1:30. At 2:30, Ms. Mary leaves, and after a 40-minute car ride, she finally arrives home.
“It’s 35 to 40 minutes, but yeah, coming in and seeing you guys, and, you know, having people smile, saying please and thank you, all that,” Ms. Mary said, “that’s worth it. Seeing the smiling faces every day, watching them go from freshman to seniors and seeing them develop and grow.”
Building connections with the students isn’t a part of their job, but they choose to try and make kids feel more welcome during breakfast and lunch.
“I try to make a point to know kids’ names, and if you’re a really good kid, I know your birthdays. Things like that,” Ms. Paula said.
Although there are many positives to working at a school, like having school breaks when the students break and being able to watch young minds grow, there are downsides to every job, besides the normal things like coworkers, pay, and commute, but specifically for jobs dealing with kids isn’t always easy.
“It would be great if the students had respect for themselves and us to clean up after themselves a little bit,” Ms. Stephanie said. “I think a lot of students really understand what we do, and they care, but then there are just some that just have a good time making a tremendous mess out here…I think kids, just in general, need to pay attention and respect what everybody does.”
Getting to know the staff, peers, and people you see every day gives insights into the lives of the people you think you know.
“You know, I think sometimes that people don’t realize that the people in the cafeteria had more interesting lives before we started working here,” Ms. Mary said.
Ms. Mary isn’t only a great lunch lady, but she is also a brilliant woman who is capable of remodeling houses, fixing older cars, and learning to do anything independently. She is currently excited to build a new house for herself and her husband. Ms. Mary has worked in food service for 41 years and believes she has always been drawn to cooking and working with students.
Ms. Mary’s message for students is, “You just have to learn not to sweat the little stuff. You know, that was the hardest thing in my life: to learn sometimes the little stuff isn’t worth it.”
Before becoming a lunch worker, Ms. Stephanie was a programmer. Later, she decided to work at Edison Middle School to be able to spend more time with her daughter. After her daughter attended high school, she decided to come with her and has been here for the last four years, and plans to keep working here.
Ms. Paula graduated from Centennial High School (She said, “Go Maroons”), then pursued a higher education by taking a few college classes. Later, she married her high school sweetheart and raised two daughters. Now she has been married for 32 years, her oldest daughter is 30, and her youngest is 22. Recently, she had a grandson who will be turning one this summer.
Paula Deck, Kelly O’Bryan-Kimbell, Stephanie Shelksohn, Kimberly Tartar, Brandi Williams, and Mary Lowe are the amazing women who dedicate their time to ensuring every student can be fed.
Ms. Stephanie’s message to share is, “I think it’s really important that kids get a good breakfast and lunch. I wish more kids would come in and eat breakfast. I guess I wish we could promote breakfast a little bit more, but the kids who come in late, and they just don’t have enough time to get it.”
