Every day, students among students file into the cafeteria, standing in long, agonizing lines, pushing people forward in the assembly line of kids funneling through cold metal bars. Every day, for nutrition and lunch, students walk through cutting, air-conditioned doors, ducking their heads to ensure the sharp blast of air doesn’t mess with their hair, and shuffling through to where metal boxes hold a variety of neatly packaged foods for people to consume.
That’s what everyone sees. The wait-in-line shuffle where everyone is staring at their phone, hoping the person behind them doesn’t step on their shoes or run into their backpack.
But what about what’s beyond that? What about the people who stand behind the student ID keypads, checking their computers to ensure this is the first time you picked up your government-sanctioned free meal? What about the people who come to school early to pick up the biweekly shipment of goods on Tuesdays and Fridays, and spend most of their time heating the food– and sometimes even making it?
Carol Evans, Casey Wheat, Maria Perez, Kaen Orozco, and Ella Haviland help make sure the school’s food system doesn’t collapse in on itself. A typical day in the cafeteria begins early in the morning, at six o’clock.
“Casey and Ella come in, in the morning at six o’clock. They lay out the mats, they turn on the ovens, the warmers, the heaters,” said Evans. “I come in at around seven-thirty. We start wrapping the food, putting the burgers on the buns, doing the cheeseburgers, and we wrap it up.”
They also make their own pasta, grinding the meat themselves and taking the delivered ingredients to cook the sauce from scratch.
After lunch and nutrition, they count up all the food and the orders, making sure everything is in order. And if they have any leftovers– which they usually don’t– they mostly reuse them on a different day, if they aren’t meat.
The food in the cafeteria is free to all students under the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, which– according to the act– “authorizes funding for federal school meal and child nutrition programs.” All LVUSD meals are provided by Gold Star Foods and Jordanos Food Service, both of which are well-respected in what Gold Star calls, “School nutrition and distribution.”
Carol Evans has been working at Calabasas for nine years and has spent twelve years working for LVUSD. This year is going to be her last at Calabasas, and since then, she’ll be retiring. She’s usually the face you see behind the smudged-up window to the snack shack, leaning down to talk to you through the open gap. She also helps with overseeing the lunch line and cataloging the food taken.
“I think the best part of the day is seeing the students come in,” said Evans. “…You know, I just love that.”
