©2000-2002 Carole Moore
Starting at about 10:45, a stream of youngsters begins pouring through the door of the Southwest Elementary School cafeteria and continues,
unabated, until about 12:30, when the last class files through. This is when the lunch ladies of the Onslow County, North Carolina, school system earn their pay. The kitchen is a blur of activity. It's spaghetti day
and kids like it, so the line's long today. The older kids usually opt for spaghetti, a roll and milk, with an occasional extra purchase of yogurt or a cookie. The younger kids fill up their trays with fruit and green beans,
but end up throwing most of it out. Several fourth grade boys stand chatting in line, waiting for their turn. Today's vegetable is green beans. They're asked if they plan to eat some. "Oh sure, sure, love'em, just love
green beans," Stephen Taylor says. His friend, Matthew Guin chimes in with a green bean endorsement. "I've been eating green beans since I was a little kid," Guin said. Later the two boys sit talking quietly over
their spaghetti. Noticing a lurking reporter, they grab their green beans and eat a healthy mouth full, then smile. Look Mom, I'm eating my green beans. But the veggies don't rank high on the list of foods the kids choose
at lunchtime. Cafeteria manager Cathy Justice sighs. "They love pizza, but the vegetables are a tougher sell," Justice says. Surprisingly, the salads fly off the shelf. Justice says the kids seem to really like
the large chef's salad all the school cafeterias offer. They also gobble up the chicken nuggets. What they don't like are fish and cabbage. In fact, cabbage gets universally bad reviews from all age brackets. Just mentioning the
word sets off a series of "yucks" up and down the service line. But the lunch ladies get high marks. "They smile and are really nice to us," Brittany Brown says. Fellow fourth grader Courtney Bell likes the way they prepare
food. "They're really good cooks," Bell says. Good food? Nice ladies? Isn't this a school cafeteria? What's going on here? In her cubbyhole of an office in the corner of a warehouse, Betty Jean King, Onslow
County's Child Nutrition Supervisor attacks her job as though it's the most important one in the world. And to her, it is. "If parents will cook instead of going for meals on wheels, children would learn how to eat," King
said, referring to the kids predilection for fast foods. It's her job to get something nutritious down them. "A hungry child cannot learn and feeding them right is as important as anything we do for them," King says. Her
desk is covered with papers, the word "child nutrition" flit across her computer's screensaver. King is fanatical about the Onslow County cafeteria system and doesn't care who knows it. The lunches cost $1.25 and it's her
job to keep the price affordable, offer high quality meals and turn a profit. "We're the only business the Board of Education runs and if we don't generate enough revenue, then we can't survive," King said. They've helped
cut costs by joining an eight-county cooperative through which they make their supply purchases. They also sell extras to the kids along with the breakfasts and lunches. Huge, soft, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and tubes of
squeezable yogurt are big sellers. But it's the meal itself that King monitors most closely in the 31 school kitchens across the county. "We eat lunch in a different one each day," King says, waving a hand at her two office
staff members, Pat Adkins and Ricky Yow. All three women are dressed alike: purple shirts and khaki pants. In fact, all the cafeteria workers wear the same color-coordinated shirts, a different color each day, and white pants. Gone
are the white or pink polyester dresses with zippers up the front. The hairnets are still around, though. "Have to wear this in the kitchen," Cathy Justice says to visitors who wander past the serving line into her
stainless steel kingdom. The place is spotless. "Did you see my health rating?" Justice, who is cafeteria manager at Southwest Elementary School, asks. She points with pride to a certificate on the wall that announces a
health department sanitation rating of "102 percent". The lunch ladies, who look suspiciously like normal people, are busy preparing lunch and cleaning up after the breakfast crowd. They'll eat their own lunch at 10 in the
morning, before the kids show up. The lunch line is split into two groups that channel opposite directions, so two classes can be handled at one time. Each serving line has one lady that serves, one that keeps the food
stocked and one cashier. Other workers are cooking and keeping track of the food supplies. The smell of fresh-baked yeast rolls wafts through the building as the first group of kids line up. With only a little over 20 minutes to
eat, the first group finishes and lines back up to dump their trash and place their trays where Dorothy Cranford -- her hands moving at supersonic speed -- dunks them in dishwater, places them on a rack, sprays them down, moves
them through a dishwasher and, once they air dry, stacks them and rolls them back out to be used again. Meanwhile, back in the cafeteria, Reanna Crawford, a delicate second-grader eats her lunch backwards, starting with her
apple, moving to her milk and finishing up with her spaghetti. Fellow second-grader Caitlin Herring takes one bite of her orange and tosses most of her lunch away. "I'm not very hungry," she says, adding that pizza is her
favorite meal and making a face when green beans are mentioned. As each child filters through the line, the cashier, who calls his or her account up on her computer screen, calls the child's name.
"Bye, Josh. Hello, Brittany," she says, ushering the child through the line with a smile. That's a surprise. These lunch ladies smile at the kids. And not like carnivores preparing for dinner. They actually seem to
like the children and the feeling's mutual. Brenda Bobo, who's only been at Southwest for a short time says she loves her job. "I love seeing these youngsters," Bobo says.
Karen Foy says most of the kids that come through the line are very respectful. "I try to treat them like I'd want someone to treat mine," Foy said. At White Oak High School, Wanda Johnson puts into practice
that same philosophy. The perennially-smiling Johnson greets the hungry teenagers who storm the cafeteria as though they were guests in her home. She carries a camera and snaps photographs of the teens to commemorate special days
and achievements. The level of activity in the lunchroom is intense as the kids fall into one of three lines to choose their lunch. There's a hot lunch line that offers a full meal with vegetables and two lunch carts that have
sandwiches, fajitas, pizza and other items. At one table, a group is digging into their lunch with enthusiasm. Junior Lee Moore says he likes the chicken fillet sandwich best, a sentiment echoed around the table.
"It's fantabulous," Ronnie Revels, also a junior, agrees, biting into his sandwich. With less than 30 minutes to eat and make it to their next class, these kids don't have the luxury of a lazy lunch . Melvin Meadows, a 9th
grader, has his tray piled high with food and he's working his way through it. He finishes his corn and starts on his sandwich. His French fries, swimming in ketchup, and cake still await his attention. Fellow freshman Quintin
Brightman leaves his books on the table and heads for the line. Chances are, he'll bring back a chicken fillet sandwich, too. That -- and pizza -- are the high schoolers absolute favorites. Johnson says the cafeteria serves between
168 and 200 chicken sandwiches and over 144 slices of pizza per day. "And some get double," she said. Back at the table, the kids are eating as quickly as they can. The time is growing short and still the lines
stretch out. "The lines are really long and that's why some people don't eat lunch," LaToya Stokes says, but Moore says they're lucky to have first lunch.
"The lines are really bad in second lunch, I mean long lines," Moore says. Johnson agrees. She says when it's really bad, some kids have to get passes so they can finish eating. A girl at a nearby table is wolfing
down her fries. In fact, teens are munching down on the French fries as though they are nectar from the gods. Johnson says she goes through 75 pounds of French fries every day.
"And some kids get fries and mashed potatoes," she said. The cafeteria, which holds about 250 people, is bustling with activity, but in a few minutes it will clear and the staff will clean up and prepare for the
second wave of starving students. "These kids eat and they really like the variety we have here," Johnson said. Martha Humphrey, who works in the kitchen, has also worked in an elementary school cafeteria. She likes
the high school best because of its faster pace. Humphrey said she's gotten to know many of the kids and some get the same thing to eat, day in and day out. "Some of them will just look at you and go 'The usual' and I know
exactly what that is," Humphrey said, adding that she's proud of the quality of food they serve. The cafeteria has cleared. A few staff members come in to eat and take advantage of the quiet time between lunch periods. The
lunch ladies are busy cooking the next batches of pizza and chicken for second lunch. Johnson, who says she's been in food service for 25 years -- since she was 18 -- looks out over the cafeteria with as much pride as if it was a
five-star restaurant. She is a lunch lady by profession, as well as by choice. "I just love this job," Johnson says and, somehow, it's not hard to believe.
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