Kendra Rush

We interviewed Ms. Kendra Rush. She is a cafeteria worker and cashier at Parker. Ms. Rush is a very hard-working individual and she likes her job very much. Outside of work, she is a mother of two wonderful children. Both are girls; one is nine and one is two. Ms. Rush loves her children and is a very dedicated mother. After the interview was over, Ms. Rush told us she was very happy that she did it. She does a variety of jobs in the Parker cafeteria. We learned a lot about what Ms. Rush does, both at work and in her personal life, and how she balances it all.

“I just make the best of every situation.”

Ms. Rush is from Chicago. She attended a school on the west side of the city, and she continued her education there through high school. She has been interested in cooking since she was a little girl. Ms. Rush has worked at other places before Parker, such as summer camps (as a counselor), a daycare center, Walmart, and at a few clothing stores. She has worked at other schools before, and has a lot of experience working in school cafeterias. Ms. Rush used to regularly rotate between schools and has worked at over a hundred schools, including Lane Tech and Lake View High School. She decided to work as a cook in schools because she could get paid to cook, which she loves to do, and be around children at the same time, which she also loves to do. Her favorite foods are mac n’ cheese, fried chicken and pancakes, which she loves to cook for her daughters. Ms. Rush's dream jobs are to open her own restaurant and to have her own clothing line. Her daughters’ names are Martinaye and Makyleigh. Martinaye is 9 years old, and Makyleigh is 2 years old. Ms. Rush loves coming home to her daughters, and she enjoys playing, baking, watching movies and spending time with them.

Because she is part of the kitchen staff, Ms. Rush's shift begins earlier than others, around 8:00 a.m., and ends at 4:30 p.m. This means she has to get up at 5:30 a.m., and she goes to bed at 10:00 p.m. Ms. Rush only gets a 30 minute break for an 8 hour and 30 minute shift. The busiest time of the week is 12:35 on Wednesday. Some of the skills Ms. Rush has gained from working at Parker are being able to work skillfully with her hands and being able to cook better. The only thing that was challenging for her in the beginning was learning to use the cash register, but she is a quick learner, so she said it wasn’t too bad. Ms. Rush loves her job and she told us, “I get up every day and I’m happy to come here because I’m doing something that I love to do.”

“My grandpa … did a lot of cooking, and that’s what made me get into cooking at an early age. I didn’t want to sit around and ask people and say 'I’m hungry!' and wait for people to cook for me."

When asked, Ms. Rush said that every day is an interesting day at Parker. The kitchen staff has to make many hot lunches every day. Sometimes, they have to substitute a dish for something else because they run out of an ingredient. The menus are planned in advance, and are on a six-week rotation, although sometimes they change the dates for certain meals. Ms. Rush also said that on average, about two students drop their lunches per day. We wondered if it is hard for Ms. Rush to see food pass by when she is hungry and she is working at the register, and she replied yes. She said students usually make healthy choices for lunch and are split about 50/50 between getting hot lunch and sandwiches. Ms. Rush feels that, for the most part, everyone is respectful to her when they are purchasing their lunch. Her favorite food in the cafeteria is broccoli mac n’ cheese. A few things students can do to help make Ms. Rush’s job easier are clean up after themselves, be nicer, and give up their seats to the second grade the first time Ms. Rush asks so that everyone can stay on schedule. Ms. Rush said that nobody usually uses their friends’ codes on purpose. They removed the keypads in the cafeteria because it took students too long to type their codes while holding all their food, and the keypads were not always responsive.

We want to thank Ms. Kendra Rush for letting us interview her. It was great getting to know her better. When we were interviewing her, she was very descriptive with her answers, and gave us a lot of information to work with. Whenever you’re in line, or just passing by the cafeteria, always smile and say, “Hello,” and, “Have a nice day.” Ms. Rush loves when people say hello. The lesson that we all can learn from this is to appreciate the staff in the Parker community. We learned a lot about her two daughters, dream jobs, past jobs, and her amazing personality. We hope that she stays with this job as long as possible. Everyone at Parker should respect Ms. Kendra Rush. She is a wonderful person, and you should try to get to know her.