Special Feature

Veteran cafeteria
workers serve district
for over 20 years

Breaking down

With more than 700 hungry students buying lunches every day,
cafeteria operators have a lot on their hands. We sat down with
veteran workers Eva-Lena Lyssand and Losehina Pupunu, who
together have worked in the food service for 40 years, to see what
their daily schedule is like.
Can you describe an average work day for you?
LP: I get here at 6:30 a.m.
EL: We start preparing breakfast and then we start preparing lunch, we have to
inspect and wash the fruits and we set up our stations with all that is necessary like
trays and napkins and condiments and get milk ready, so were constantly working.
After that, of course, theres cleanup, prepping for the next day, washing trays, orderLP

What is the best part of your job?

LP: I like communicating with the kids and making them happy. I get personal with
the kids, you know I say Im happy to see you today, I greet them very normally
when I see them.
EL: I really enjoy the students herethey make me smile, they make me laugh,
theyre funny, theyre wonderful kids.
LP: If youre nice to the kids, the kids are nice to you. If you mistreat the kids then
you know they wont come back to you (laughs).
EL: Its just mutual respect I think...the nicer [we] are at the window, and the more
they know exactly what they want [and the lines go faster]. If they stand there and
procrastinate, then the lines go slow, and thats not good. We need to get everybody
served quickly, so they can sit down for lunch.
LP: Our main focus is to make the kids happy, what their needs are, what they want,
what they want to eat, and provide for them.
EL: If they dont like a certain product, we relay that to our big boss and we try
something else.

What is most rewarding about being in food service?

EL
so cute and naive, and then when theyre seniors its like Oh wow, where are you
going to go? I always ask that, and its so exciting. [It] is just so important that they
continue their education.
EL: I had one student two years ago who wrote me a card before she graduated and
that was really [good] to hear because it was important that I made her smile everyday. If we could hear that more often from students, that would be great. I just want
them to realize that we are human, like their parents or normal people. Were not

School Lunch

School lunch is an integral part of so many students days, and many

people actually get all three meals at Sequoia. Over 700 students in
total eat lunch served here every day. But very few people understand
the long process behind making the meals students eat every day.
The Raven Report looked at the component of school lunches, from
the purchasing of produce to eating in the cafeteria.

Caf Sequoia
Multiple open
serving windows
would increase
speed of service A salad bar for those only
interested in veggies

Another
water bottle
filling station to
keep students
hydrated

Free fresh
fruit to take
for snacks

Circular tables to
increase inclusivity
and a caf-like feel

Read more at ravenreport.org

XAVI BOLUA and ABIGAIL WANG

A redesign of the multi-purpose room would encourage students to eat more school lunch.
Circular tables, improved flow for ordering food, and fruit and vegetable offerings are what
students requested in a survey.

School lunches deserve more appreciation

School lunches: cursed with the

bad reputation of being terrible food
ing out trays. Weve all heard and
probably voiced complaints about
how unappealing school food is, often without actually knowing how
the food tastes or stopping to think
about who prepares it.
However, its time we appreciate
the hard work that goes into feeding
our school and realize the negative ef-

fects our complaints can have.

From the workers in the district of-

an incredible amount of time and

care is put into each and every entree.
were all fast asleep and doesnt end
until the late afternoon when SAFE
meals are handed out.
Eight women make thousands of

both healthy and tasty food. Sure, its

easy for us to complain since were
not the ones waking up before dawn.
But since we arent, a little gratitude
will go a long way.
all day feeding the 500-600 students
who eat brunch and 700 who eat
lunch, so they deserve our recognition, not our grumbles. A simple
smile and thank you when they hand

us our food could let them know we

appreciate all they do to keep our
stomachs full.
Even though some might argue
insulting the food cant be hurtful,
around 50 percent of students here
are part of the Free and Reduced
Lunch Program, and some of them
only eat the meals they have at school.
By dismissing the food as disgusting
or unhealthy, we can unintentionally
make our classmates uncomfortable

Lunches made fresh every day by

small staff in district facility
BY DALIA JUDE
and CLAIRE BUGOS
Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor
Among the long lunch lines lie common misconceptions about the origins
of the food that serves an average of 700
students every day at Sequoia.
It takes approximately eight hours
for the food students eat at lunch to be
prepared, transported and distributed at
the lunch windows at Sequoiaand it is
all done by eight people for a district of
about 10,000 students.
Arriving at the food preparation and
distribution facility near the district
offices at 4 a.m. and working until 10
a.m., the production staff at 300 James
St. does everything from assembling salads to wrapping burritos fresh daily.
We buy fruits and vegetables from
local growers [in] Stockton and the
[Central] Valley, said Nora DeCaro, Director of Food Services for the SUHSD.
For the most part, were able to get our
fruits and vegetables locally so we dont
have to resort to canned fruit.
Contrary to popular belief, all of the
ingredients are delivered to the production facility each day and the entrees
are prepared to be served at that days
breakfast, brunch, lunch and after school
SAFE mealtimes.
They do all the prep, and then we
have a cooler over here and we have two
trucks that take all of this food out in

the morning so your sandwich is made food she serves.

in the morning and its delivered to
If Im not willing to eat it myself Im
your school site in time to be served for certainly not going to consider serving it
lunch, DeCaro said. Students have to students. Im very unhappy with some
this perception that the food isnt freshly of the [food] that Ive seen, and its getmade every day; that somehow its com- ting to be a little bit more challenging to
ing from I dont know where.
find food products that we can afford to
At Sequoia, about half of the student serve on the lunch program that I conbody is part of the Free and Reduced sider to be food, she said.
Lunch program, a government-subsiAt Sequoia alone, an average of 700
dized initiative which
students are served
decreases the cost of
lunch and 500-600 eat
Students have this perceplunch for students whose
breakfast and brunch.
tion that the food isnt freshly
families meet income
This leaves DeCaro
made every day; that somehow
qualifications.
and her staff to find a
its coming from I dont know
This year the district
balance between ensurwhere.
has switched to 100
ing every student that
Nora DeCaro,
percent whole grain
needs lunch gets fed
Director of Food Services
products in continuing
and limiting leftovers
with the wellness policy
to reduce waste. DeCathat was set in place in 2010 to ensure ros goal is to limit lunch leftovers to 20
a healthier standard for food served on entrees or fewer per day, though that
school campuses. This policy is what number is often higher when there is a
prompted the switch from soda to fruit conflicting school event that serves food
juice in the vending machines and regu- simultaneously.
lates the type of snack food served based
Although DeCaro has reached out to
on nutritional content.
organizations such as Second Harvest
We have very similar items on the Food Bank, the cooked meals do not fit
menu that weve always pretty much their needs, and are thus thrown away at
had, but theyre really brand new this the end of each day.
year because the recipes have been redeAs shown in our diagram (left), a resigned to meet these requirements. So cycling and composting system in Seyoure secretly getting more whole grains quoias cafeteria would help to cut down
and more fruits and vegetables, and you Sequoias environmental footprint, foldont even know it, DeCaro said.
lowing the implementation of the popuApart from state regulations, DeCaro lar reusable water bottle filling station
has her own standards for the quality of outside the MPR.

Sequoia Says:

If you could change one thing about the cafeteria,

what would it be?
Graphic created by Dalia Jude and Claire Bugos using easel.ly

with the kids.

LP
youre the best lunch lady.

or embarrassed.
Sure, school lunches arent gourmet. But how could we expect them
to be? Sometimes theyre soggy or
cold, but theyre always prepared
thoughtfully. We should be thoughtful in return. This can be as simple as
thanking the lunch ladies when they
serve us, informing others of the hard
work that goes into preparation and
showing some respect by stifling our
complaints.

Theres never enough food [for everyone. We should]

split up lunch periods so freshmen are with
sophomores and juniors are with seniors.
Senior Lourdes Gomez
Faster lines. It was better when we could go to any
window for whatever food we wanted.
Junior Yazmin Moreno
If theres a game going on, like a Giants game,
have it playing up on a big screen in the cafeteria.
Freshman Cristian Navarro
Bring back teriyaki chicken. Oh, and more
comfortable [cafeteria chairs]
a little cushy for your tushie.
Senior Roberto Alvarez
Compiled by Claire Bugos, Xavi Bolua and Abigail Wang

Most popular entre: spicy chicken