Students grow up with school lunch: going through the line, picking out the best looking apple, selecting the boat with the most chicken nuggets, and punching in their code.
What may seem omnipresent is something that takes time and effort to attend to, but the people who make our lunch do it for the benefit of Boone students everyday.
The women behind the cafeteria say that they want to make sure lunch is the highlight of each student’s day.
“Our goal is to get you guys through the line as fast as possible with smiles on our faces,” kitchen manager Mary Butsch said.
Butsch has only been managing Boone’s cafeteria since Nov. 1, but her experience spans further than that. She opened Ballyshannon Middle School’s cafeteria back in 2018, and has been running their lunch service up until this year.
She’s been in food service for almost 30 years working a wide range, from Bob Evans to Jeff Ruby’s. Along the way, she earned her associate degree in business and her certificate for culinary arts.
Running school lunch is not an easy task, but rather one that involves many hours, and even more hands. Butsch starts her day off at 6:00 a.m. and makes enough breakfast for around 400 students.
More staff members clock in to help serve, and as soon as breakfast is served, the clock is ticking on the upcoming lunch service.
By 9:00 a.m., the whole staff has arrived and everyone is working together to get lunch on the line. Some staff members start by cutting and prepping fruits while others are working to prepare hot foods.
To make this process smoother, prep starts the afternoon before a service. This prep often means putting food on trays and on a cart so the so the following day all that is left is to cook it.
However, the cooking process is extensive no matter how much prep happens when cooking for 800 hungry high school students.
On a typical day, the cafeteria has 12 people on staff, but currently they are functioning with 10 because of two staff members coming up on their retirements.
One of those ladies is Carla Roberts, who has been working in Boone’s Cafeteria for 25 years.
During her career she has done every job in the cafeteria which makes her versatile.
“I do the kitchen anywhere someone needs help: cooking, cleaning, baking, interacting with the kids,” Roberts said.
This teamwork is an asset on busy days.
While difficult, the biggest, most rewarding day in the cafeteria is the Thanksgiving meal. This year was a big testament to the collaboration and hard work that happens in the cafeteria kitchen because Butsch had only been at Boone for a couple of weeks.
“I started the first of November, and with the Thanksgiving Day meal one of the biggest days of the year, I had it on my radar from day one,” Butsch said.
It’s the biggest service of the year, and it doesn’t come without its challenges, but it went into the books as a success.
“It was a special feeling when the day was done, and we made it,” Butsch said.
Roberts, a longtime employee of Boone, has a similar outlook to the Thanksgiving meal, as well as the everyday service. Her favorite part is seeing students happy and blossoming in comfort over the years.
Senior Maite Sanchez has experiences that are a direct result of this.
“The sweet ladies at the register are always so polite and make me have a better attitude before eating,” Sanchez said.
Roberts feels that success through the appreciation from kids. She says that they work so hard because being able to provide these meals to students is really special.
Sanchez can attest to this when recalling her memories of school lunch.
“The food is comfort food, I’ve been eating it since kindergarten,” Sanchez said.
Through all this work together, everyone in the cafeteria has gotten close with each other and they function as an effective team.
“We call ourselves the Boone Gals because we help each other and we are like family,” Roberts said.
This teamwork that goes unseen is what helps to set the tone of school lunch at Boone.
