{"id":6177,"date":"2022-11-16T20:26:29","date_gmt":"2022-11-17T01:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/?p=6177"},"modified":"2022-11-16T20:26:34","modified_gmt":"2022-11-17T01:26:34","slug":"the-stories-and-faces-behind-lunch-at-the-high-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/the-stories-and-faces-behind-lunch-at-the-high-school\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stories and Faces Behind Lunch at the High School"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Media of Ms. Belinda Hernandez provided by Alejandro Izurieta ’25<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We interact with them every day, but how much do we really know about the lunch cooks who complete the seemingly impossible task of feeding hundreds of students daily? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two of their names are Simeon Luna and Angela Reynoso, and they are the friendly faces behind the meals that fuel students through the school day. Simeon is a sous-chef at the high school, and Ms. Reynoso is the chef manager at both campuses. For many, they provide a welcome respite from the never-ending chaos of the school day. However, our interactions with them are limited to brief lunchtime exchanges. As a result, we don\u2019t have many opportunities to learn about their lives, personalities, and the hard work that goes into the daily meal services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If 9 a.m. is early, try getting to school at 6:30, 5:30, or even 5:00 <\/em>in the morning. For Simeon and Ms. Reynoso, that is simply an average day at work. First on the lunch staff\u2019s agenda is to make coffee, bagels, cream cheese, butter, and milk for the teachers and faculty. Once breakfast is out of the way, the staff prepares the yogurt bar, which typically consists of yogurt, along with a mix of fresh and dried fruit, homemade<\/em> granola, and eggs. Yet this dedicated cooking routine does not only entail laying out each respective product. They also must work on cutting the fruit, baking the granola, and organizing the rest of the components in the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, the staff must tackle the gargantuan task of stocking the salad bar and the sandwiches. All 18<\/em> components of the salad bar are prepared on the day they are served, including the croutons and dressings. Preparing the sandwiches may sound simple, but when it comes to serving hundreds of students on a daily basis, assembling sandwiches with multiple layers of deli meat, cheese, and vegetables is anything but easy. According to Ms. Reynoso, each staff member is assigned a specific task, but since there is so much work to complete before the first lunch block, everyone must multi-task. That means juggling dishwashing, deliveries, and food prep all at the same time. If somebody calls in sick or is absent, the whole staff works together to complete the missing person\u2019s work.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While all of those tasks are being completed, the staff simultaneously prepares the hot lunch, ranging from a simple lunch like curry and rice to complicated ones like hamburgers and burritos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After serving breakfast to the faculty and preparing the salad and yogurt bars, the staff has to make the daily soup, which, like the rest of the menu, is predetermined by the lunch staff and the catering company. Then, they prepare the homemade agua fresca and tea. At last, the lunches are finally completed for the hundreds of hungry students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While said students may experience a feeling of subtle bliss seeing their favorite lunch being plated during the lunch block, they are not the only ones. Simeon\u2019s favorite lunch is tacos, which originate from Mexico, his home country. When he was only 18, he came to the United States, where he later found a job at Cater To You<\/em>, Grace\u2019s catering company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Simeon, Ms. Reynoso also immigrated to the U.S. at a young age; she left the Dominican Republic for the U.S. at 21, where she pursued her interests in cooking. In an interview, she fondly recalled memories of standing on a stool in her grandmother\u2019s kitchen, cooking for her many relatives at only 10 years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Simeon prepared to return to the lunch service, he voiced one special request for the students and staff: please clean all of your food off the plates and organize your silverware and plates into the correct bins! As he described, it\u2019s disheartening to \u201c… treat everyone with respect,\u201d only to see students not return that respect by \u201clittering tables with dirty plates and napkins.\u201d Next time you\u2019re about to place your fork in the \u201cplates\u201d bin, imagine how tedious it is for the staff to sort through hundreds of plates and utensils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re feeling grateful for the kitchen staff, maintenance team, or security and would like to voice your gratitude, then consider sharing your appreciation for them at the Thanksgiving chapel on November 22nd. Reach out to your advisors if you\u2019re interested in contributing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media of Ms. Belinda Hernandez provided by Alejandro Izurieta ’25. We interact with them every day, but how much do we really know about the lunch cooks who complete the… Continue reading “The Stories and Faces Behind Lunch at the High School”<\/span> <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":6178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[200,16,7],"tags":[326,180,79,873,328],"appful":[],"class_list":["post-6177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recent","category-special-sections","category-school","tag-faculty","tag-featured","tag-food","tag-recentarticles","tag-staff"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9uEnr-1BD","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG-7673-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6180,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177\/revisions\/6180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6177"},{"taxonomy":"appful","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/appful?post=6177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}