When eating a school lunch, most students don’t realize the time and effort the lunch staff put into preparing it. Anyone who has served food before knows it isn’t as simple as it looks — it can be time-consuming and exhausting.

One of the lunch staff members, Nicole, shared what goes on behind the scenes of meal prep. When asked how long it usually takes, she explained, “Our lead cook gets here about 5:30, and I get here at 7:45, and we usually finish wrapping everything up around 10 o’clock to 10:30.” That adds up to nearly five hours of work just to prepare meals for students each day.

Nicole also talked about one change she and the other lunch staff would like students to understand — the requirement to grab a fruit with lunch. She said, “I think it would be important if we could make sure the students have an understanding as to why you need to take a fruit.” Without fruit, the meal isn’t considered complete and students miss out on the full nutritional value.

Something else Nicole expressed was how she envisioned the menu in the next couple of years. “I think it would be cool to see more varieties in terms of cultural foods… I think it would be nice to be able to do more in-depth things for each culture,” she said.

Lunch staff work hard to provide meals for students, regularly putting in hours of time and effort. Nicole, along with the rest of the lunch staff, is committed to making sure students get their nutritious meals by making sure there is always fruit. They are also excited for the future opportunities to expand the menu culturally.