When the bell rings for lunch, students pour out of the classrooms heading to the cafeteria and lockers, while others head off to club meetings. However, there is a small but mighty team of students who make their way to the cafeteria for a reason other than to eat lunch. These students are going to work in the school cafeteria.

Cafeteria manager Shelley Carmichael said students contribute greatly. “It helps out because they help us prepare the foods for lunch and breakfast. It makes a big difference when they’re not here because with the amount of meals that we serve we definitely need the extra hands in the kitchen,” Carmichael said. 

And just how many meals does the cafeteria serve in a day?

“It kind of varies,” Carmichael said. “With brunch, we serve between 500 and 550. And lunch, we serve between 575 and like on an average day 575 to like 650. On certain days, we can go up to 700 for lunch. So if you add that up, about 1100 meals a day.”

About a dozen students work for the cafeteria at different times as servers at the cash registers and prepare food during brunch or A period. They join Carmichael and three or four adult cafeteria staff members.

“People who come in the morning help us with preparing sandwiches, just like food prep, making the pizzas, doing the zombies. So they food prep and then at lunch and brunch, they help us serve. And then they wash dishes,” she said. “Then they also help prep for the next day, like panning up bagels and croissants to get it ready for the next day.”

Four are being interviewed in this article: juniors Nadia Hill and Minna Hill and seniors Ramon Iniguez and Ethan Parks.

Most student workers have shifts Monday through Friday during both brunch and lunch periods. Some even work during A period. Students say the adult workers are kind, friendly, and flexible to work with. They will make an effort to bring treats for birthdays or just to share. Student workers are allowed to listen to music using earbuds while working. Every worker rotates tasks every two weeks, preparing different food. 

Carmichael reemphasized the value they provide to the school, and the value they receive, adding that they make a little more than minimum wage. “I think they can work up to a certain amount of hours (annually) before they get taxed. Most of them don’t get taxed if they put ‘exempt 0’ — because they are still in school. They only work a couple hours a week.” 

The students say that the pay adds up, with some earning $300 to $600 a month, depending on how much they work. 

Here is what student have to say about their jobs:

Nadia Hill said she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her older brother, a 2024 grad, so she took on the job. Seniors Ramon Iniquez and Ethan Parks said it’s a good job since they don’t have time outside of school to work. They haven’t worked at any other jobs other than this one. 

When asked how they feel about working in the cafeteria and whether the students seeking food treat them well, Nadia Hill had this to say: “Some people want their combination of foods and get mad if their requests are not satisfied and call her bad words, others are impatient to retype their student ID.” 

When asked how they spend their money, they all had similar responses: they used the money hanging out with friends and on gifts and hobbies. Minna Hill said she has tried to save half of her paycheck for the future.

What has working in general or at school taught these students about money or people or character? The cafeteria workers had different responses including: Saving money; learning about people – the student lunch customers – who they said can be impatient and not always nice.

Any other observations? Ramon Iniquez has noticed some people racking up debt. Some might wonder how this can be, when food is provided by the state and there is no cost to students. Iniquez explained:

“When they pay for a second lunch, they have a debt owed to us. Some people owe us like $200, which I’m pretty sure is the accumulation of just second lunches over time,” he said. Parks  added that each subsequent lunch costs $3.50, and each subsequent brunch costs $2.75. He does not recommend getting seconds for the price unless it’s really good food.

What changes would they like to see while working? 

Nadia Hill said she would like people to get in the line. In addition, Iniquez said he would also like people to be in the right line, vegan, pizza, or special, because “it gets me in trouble when I’m trying to serve you guys the wrong thing that– in the wrong line.”

Parks says the cheese zombies are from Cheese Zombie, a restaurant place he highly recommends. “They have breakfast ones like jalapenos and they have ones with jalapenos,” he said. “They have one with bacon and sausage and then they have the pizza ones they have and then they have like ham ones. They have regular cheese ones and they’re really good there.”

Finally – what jobs would these students do if you didn’t work in the cafeteria?

Both Nadia Hill  and Mina Hill said they would work at a theater such as the Brenden Theater or anywhere close to home if they chose another job to work. Ethan would work at Chipotle because he likes Mexican food. Ramon Iniquez said would not work at any other job since he has no time outside of school to work.

Carmichael took time on a busy work day to answer more questions about the cafeteria and the student workers, starting with how the cafeteria gets its food. “That comes from our district office,” she said. “The Food Service Office provides us with all the menus. So we order it to our central warehouse and then they send it out to us for delivery.”

This information led to insights about the menu choices. “I don’t get to choose exactly what I want,” Carmichael said. “We have to stick with the (district) menu plan because the menus are based on calories and the nutrition for the students so we can’t go off of the recipe but we’re not supposed to go off of the recipe.”

While the entire student body enjoys free brunch and lunch, a small handful of students are working tirelessly to allow the rest of their peers to enjoy free meals at school. Let’s take a moment to appreciate and not take them for granted!