How Troy Schools Feed Hundreds Of Hungry Students A Day

This is seventh in a series of articles recognizing the importance of Troy Community School District 30-C’s support personnel. The work they do greatly contributes to the education and well-being of our students and often goes unnoticed.

Some of us have trouble coordinating lunches for a couple of children. Imagine coordinating them for thousands. Or totally reconfiguring the concept of school lunches when students are learning from home during the period of Covid-19 remote education.

That’s just what the lunch workers for the students in the seven Troy Community School District 30-C schools had to cope with this past year.

The district is appreciating their service this year and especially their flexibility, with never before seen changes and programs.

Lunch at the kindergarten through eighth-grade Troy schools is overseen by lunch supervisors, who are Troy staff, and served by kitchen workers, who are contractors.

During normal school years, they feed and clean up after hundreds of students a day during several lunch periods.

Mark Peter, Assistant Principal of Troy Middle School, said the jobs of his lunch supervisors involve much more than what most think.

“They also develop relationships with the students in their sections,” he said, “that can last over their two years in the building.”

They help make the period a nice, safe time for the students to eat and also for them to socialize and have some unstructured time.

When the pandemic hit last spring, Troy schools began a period of remote (from home) education. Lunches were cancelled completely at first, then were offered on a parent pick-up basis. The lunch workers assembled those and distributed them to parents in drive-by pick-ups. Hybrid education (with some students learning remotely and others in classrooms) began in the fall of 2020, and on April 8 of this year, full-day classes began and in-school lunches were again served.

Peter said the workers handled their quickly changing responsibilities professionally.

“Their jobs have been significantly different,” he said. “They began handling lunch distribution and also some other non-lunch-related duties, such as assisting with our additional cleaning/sanitizing responsibilities. They did this flawlessly, without hesitation.”

“It was a very challenging year,” said Troy Middle School lunch supervisor Melissa Velazquez.

She said she and her colleagues have always enjoyed conversing with students and have appreciated it when they are able to positively impact their lives. Not being able to interact with them this year has been her biggest challenge. At the beginning of Covid-19 remote learning, she was also concerned that the students who were in need of lunches would not be getting the food they required.

Troy addressed those needs by providing breakfast and lunch pick-ups for those learning at home.

This is Karen Newby’s seventh year as a Troy Heritage Trail Elementary School lunch supervisor. All six of her own children attended the school, and it’s a family to her. She said the school offers a good, kind and secure environment for the students.

“It’s fun to get to know them,” she said. “I’m super happy to have them back again.”

Troy kitchen workers are contract employees with Arbor Management. Its Food Service Director is Colleen Rios, who said before Covid, they served around 2,230 lunches each day at the seven Troy schools. Hot lunches, cold lunches, salads, fresh fruit, veggie bars, water, milk, juice bottles and more are handled by the cooks, servers and cashiers at Arbor.

Rios said her staff find fun in their jobs and love the students.

“The food service employees handle their work time here with amazing attitude and dedication,” she said. “They are happy to be here.”

“Our lunch/recess supervisor team is a well-oiled machine,” Troy Heritage Trail Elementary School Principal Brooke Allen said. “They always have the students’ best interests at heart and work hard to create a safe, welcoming and fun environment in the lunchroom and at recess.”