By Sam Oldenburg/Farm to Fork
At 5:30 in the morning she’s waiting for the milkman. At 7:30 she gets the daily hug from Brandon. When 8:30 comes, she’s tallying lunch counts. It’s time to serve the main meal at 11 a.m. At 2 p.m. she leaves, coming back to repeat the process the next day.
Karen Huffman is the cafeteria manager at Dishman-McGinnis Elementary School in Bowling Green. Huffman prepares roughly 290 lunches and 225 breakfasts for students each day with the help of Mary Cox Anthony, Melinda Shoemake, Sharon Childers and Mary Steele.
The meals are made up of four components: a protein, bread, fruit, vegetable and milk, food services coordinator Kim Simpson said. Students must choose a food from at least three areas to make up a meal.
Dishman-McGinnis is one of two schools in the school district with 95% of students qualifying for free or reduced price lunches, Simpson said. Eligibility for the programs is based on federal poverty guidelines and is adjusted every school year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Students whose families have an annual income at 130% of the poverty level or less, for example $27,560 for a family of four, qualify for free meals while children in families with an annual income between 130% and 185% of the poverty level, between $27,560 And $39,220 for a family of four, qualify for reduced price meals.
All five of the women working in the cafeteria at Dishman-McGinnis are committed to providing the students with the best. Earlier this year Huffman suggested to Childers, the main baker, that they switch to buying pre-made cookies this year rather than making them from scratch, Huffman said. A 35-year veteran of the elementary school cafeteria, Childers told her she didn’t want to go out that way.
