What Goes Into Preparing Our Meals

TPAA has approximately 1600 students and a vast majority of them eat at school. But, what really goes into preparing our food is not as easy as it seems. Not only do they have to cook it, they also have The lovely lunch ladies arrive to the school early so they can receive the supplements that they are going to prepare that same day. The truck containing the food arrives at 6:30 am and at the same moment that they receive it, they start preparing it.

The school sometimes orders pre-made food, so the cafeteria mainly has to heat it up, but this year they have tried something new in their way of serving it. They began serving food “Family Style”, for example when they have burgers and you see the ladies serving fries. Besides that, sometimes they order the supplies needed, then they assemble the meals themselves.

Working at the cafeteria consists with a lot of moving around and attentive to the food and the cleanliness of it all to make sure that everything is at its standard.

The cafeteria ensures that they serve the students current nutrition requirements established by local, state, and Federal statutes and regulations. Providing plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, grains and milk so that we could get our proper nutrients.

They keep their meals fresh throughout the day in either freezer rooms, or dry rooms depending on what the item being stored during the day is.

Everybody that is in the cafeteria has a Food Handler certificate that ensures that they know how to properly handle/prepare the food. As well as at least one person has to have ServSafe certificate per school and at TPAA we have two people with that requirement met, Maria Rivera and Rebecca Zapata.

They keep their meals fresh throughout the day in either freezer rooms, or dry rooms depending on what the item being stored during the day is.

Hygienics play a grand role when it comes to preparing the food, everyone who comes in contact with the food has to be wearing a hairnet and follow other rules to maintain a cleanly environment.

The Food Service Manager, Rebecca Zapata keeps track of things such as how much food was made, the popularity of that meal, as well as how much of that food was served. She organizes everything through a spreadsheet. There is a budget check to see how much money goes into ordering food each month.

When it comes to organizing a menu for the upcoming school days, they base it off of what seems to be most preferable by the students due to past meal observations that they have made. The lunch ladies serve alternative meals for vegetarians and offer regular meals as well. Their menus are open to all through the school website in the Student Life tab under “Meal Program”, and are constantly being updated to corroborate the most recent situations.

Not every student gets lunch because some have to pay, or they bring their own lunches from home, etc… so when it comes to ordering the quantities of food that will be needed factors like that go into consideration. The cafeteria orders the amount specifically based on its popularity, and the amount of students that regularly get food as well.

When it comes to actually preparing the food heatwise, they start at an appropriate time, so that they can assure that they will have the food ready at the time that break/lunch/supper begins at. They remain consistent and check on the food to ensure that it is well-cooked so that the students can enjoy. It is a bit more challenging to cook the food on early release days because there is less time given to arrange the meals, but they accomplish it like it’s nothing because they are a responsible team.

One thing that Rebecca has been trying to fix is the length of the lunch line. Her plans are to find a way to make them shorter, and quicker so that the cafeteria line does not at extreme lengths.

A remarking thing that was done was the salad bar that was introduced this 2018-2019 school year. The salad bar is open to everyone and at no charge this school year. As well as the future innovations that are in plan for the 2019-2020 school year.

If there is ever any concerns of a specific meal or any question in general, the cafeteria staff will generously answer any regards in their email; cafeteria@tpaa.org . They are also open about anyone visiting the cafeteria to see something that may have captured their attention so that there isn’t any misunderstandings so that there can be satisfaction.

Make sure to stop by the cafeteria and get your proper nutrients, as well as befriend the lunch ladies, they are some of friendliest staff that you’ll ever meet !