BEHIND THE SCENES: Custodians & Lunch Ladies

While students focus on classes, lunch ladies and custodians at Walnut Grove High School are always working behind the scenes to keep the school running.
by Chloe Fankah and Nevaeh Boyce

For Ms. Jackie, a lunch Lady at WGHS, a typical day in the cafeteria is “constant movement.” “Go, go, go, go,” she said, summing it up simply. From early in the morning, she’s helping prep food, stocking supplies, “we're picking up anywhere from 20 to 50 pounds at times trying to put up stock.” It’s physical work that students don’t usually notice, but it plays a big role in keeping lunch running smoothly. 

One of the most challenging parts of her job is dealing with how quickly student preferences change. Some weeks one menu item is popular, and the next week it’s barely touched. When that happens, the staff has to adjust on the spot. She talked about how the taste pallets of students tend to change, making it hard to balance the amount of food options. “Like, this week they might like all spicy chicken or something. Next week they might like hot dogs. So then we'll make a lot of spicy chicken. And then they rather take hot dogs.” Even with the unpredictability, Ms. Jackie said she enjoys the energy students bring. She especially appreciates when students joke around and/or acknowledge the work they do. 

As assistant manager, Ms. Johnica Spikes, a lunch lady at WGHS, starts her day by checking equipment and making sure everything in the kitchen is working properly. From there, she helps with daily food prep and fills in wherever she’s needed, whether that’s covering a position or cashiering during lunch. After students leave, her work isn’t done. She stays later to handle paperwork and track everything that needs to be reported and monitored. Ms. Spikes said one of the hardest parts of her job is figuring out how much food to prepare each day. The goal is to have enough for everyone without wasting food, which takes a lot of planning and teamwork. Despite the challenges, she said her favorite part of the job is the people. From working with her team to chatting with students in line, she enjoys watching students grow from freshmen into seniors.

Ms. Melissa Hines and Ms. Linda Griffin, custodians at WGHS, explained what they enjoy most about their job. “What I love about being a custodian is cleaning and making the building smell fresh and keeping the bathrooms clean just try to make everything sanitized so germs won’t spread throughout the school.” said Ms. Hines. Ms. Griffin shared a similar interest, she explained, “I liked being a custodian because we dedicated a lot of effort to this school to make it safe, clean, and sanitized and we love to see the students smile and tell us that we are doing a great job.” Ms. Griffin also added that she enjoys when students thank them for their hard work and appreciates having a clean environment at school.

However, the job also comes with challenges. Melissa shared one of the most challenging obstacles of her day, saying, “The hardest part of the job is seeing children that are about to go out into the world. Like, when I go to the bathroom and see some of the stuff that highschoolers do in the bathroom” Despite these challenges, she continues to work hard because of her kids, who motivate her to keep going. 

Our custodians and lunch ladies work hard every day to keep the school clean, safe, and running smoothly. WGHS is very fortunate to have such amazing and dedicated staff that care so much about our school.