The Unsung Heroes of PGS

By Leah Wieland and Greenlee Pulley

At the Princeville Grade School, the Cafeteria Staff works to pack over one hundred-fifty lunch sacks per day to provide for the students during this pandemic. Due to Covid-19 the staff has had to adjust by individually wrapping each food product and putting all of those items into a bag for each student. Their job does not just include lunch, the cafeteria staff also provides breakfast and snacks for the grade school and Princeville Daycare. 

The Cafeteria staff performs many tasks everyday that the public does not often consider. Angie Stahl, head cook and kitchen manager, states, “When I come in the morning, I turn on the dishwashers, I get bleach buckets ready to use for the day, I put the breakfast in the oven for Amber to start prep.”

Assistant manager, Amber Delbridge prepares the daycare and grade school breakfast every morning. Angie mentions that they are able to stay organized thanks to the food clerks and stock managers: Carolyn Cox and Kayli Stahl who help with food prep for lunches. Fruits, entrees, and special add-ons, like syrup, are added to the lunch/breakfast sacks the day of, while everything else is prepared the day before. Once breakfast is served, Angie takes count of all the students that ate breakfast that morning and then receives the lunch count for the day, to start packing and serving lunch. 

The Covid-19 pandemic had a drastic impact on how the cafeteria was able to operate and serve their students. When Covid officially hit schools and was shut down, the cafeteria staff were still making food for Princeville students. To prevent the spread of Covid, the Stahl family and the Thole family packed the lunches and breakfasts together. “The families we used all summer long, we did that all summer, and it ended up being fun, it did, and we had fun together, and it just took time to get used to… It was a routine we had to get into.” 

As the pandemic spread, Stahl states the cafeteria had to make an increase on pre-packaged foods for safety and to follow Covid-19 guidelines. However, this caused major food warehouses to become short-staffed. “They have a shortage of drivers, workers… therefore we are having trouble getting food for the schools,” Stahl adds. 

The Corona virus has caused many changes and challenges in the kitchen, but the PGS staff has managed to make great, positive strides.

When asked about the most common misconception for lunch ladies, Stahl said, “I think people think that it would be so easy to give the kids better food.” 

However, she explains that there are many guidelines to follow to make a government approved lunch. What each lunch contains may be age dependent, although most lunches must include: six ounces of vegetables, four ounces of fruit, two grams of protein, two grams of grain, and a milk. Some food that is government provided will come prepackaged, which makes the cafeteria prep much simpler.  Although, when food does not come prepackaged, food prep and packaging is very time consuming. Stahl states that when she first started working as a cook for the school she wanted to make the elementary students elaborate dishes, but she quickly realized the hard work she was putting into these lunches was just getting thrown away. 

“They just didn’t like it,” she says, “they do love the pizza, the chicken nuggets, the stuff that we have is what the kids prefer.” 

Our PGS kitchen staff has always put in a great amount of effort to make sure students are fed well and are happy. They not only make lunches for the grade school and daycare program but also serve breakfast and snacks, and the cafeteria doesn’t clean itself! So, next time you dig into your chicken burger, take a moment to think about all the hard work our lunch ladies are putting in for you.