Lick-Wilmerding High School is home to the Ann Maisel Cafeteria, which produces something all community members know and love: the daily LWHS lunches. Who are the Cafeteria Staff that make it all possible, and what does a day look like for them in order to accomplish the task of feeding the LWHS community?
The cafeteria, otherwise known as the Caf, serves hot lunches, salads and sandwiches daily to feed the whole LWHS community including students, teachers and administration. Every dish is prepared in a kitchen that cooks 90% of its food by scratch, which only a small percentage of independent schools in the nation do. It is the workplace of Kathleen Fazio and a nine-person staff who work to make sure the Caf is up and running daily:
Kathleen Fazio, Director of Food Services
Marleny Chan, Cashier
Mario Chacón, Line Supervisor
Juan Gardner, Food Service General Assistant
Yani Lovos, Prep Cook
Rangel Mis, First Cook
Juana Morales, Prep Cook
Yesica Ortiz, Food Services
Olman Ramirez, Food Service General Assistant
Yadira Zamora, Dishwasher/Prep Cook
Each staff member has daily designated roles to ensure that every part of the lunch process is completed. With staggered arrival and departure times from 5:50 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., someone is always brainstorming, preparing and cooking for an upcoming meal.
Kathleen Fazio, Director of Food Services at LWHS, arrives in the Caf at about 5:50 a.m. Her day begins by making sure that the team’s daily list of daily tasks is set and ready. “[The daily task list] is always up for interpretation, open to pivot, open to whatever…depending on if somebody doesn’t come in,” Fazio said. The rest of the staff arrives at varying times but no later than 8 a.m.
Fazio is starting her seventh year as Director of Food Services at LWHS. Prior to LWHS, she worked at Edgewood Center for Children and Families for 13 years. She never anticipated herself in a Food Services role. At LWHS, her days vary from Zoom meetings to vendor encounters, so oftentimes she finds herself out of the kitchen. However, she is always involved in the taste-testing process.
Marleny Chan has been working at LWHS for six years now. She can often be found serving lunch and helping students who might be purchasing retail snack products sold during lunch. “Nobody knows how hard we work as a team, to have a plate ready for you every day,” Chan said. “You can see everything easily outside, but inside those doors, it’s another world.”
Chan arrives at 7:15 and gets started by cutting up all of the vegetables that are often included in LWHS lunches. Chan is the designated chopper of romaine for daily salads, and uses anywhere from 2 to 3 containers of romaine to prepare the dish. She also bakes the trays of cookies that students can purchase.
Roles for staff often vary on a day-to-day basis. “You cannot work in a kitchen if you’re not flexible,” Fazio said. “If you are inflexible or wear blinders, or are set in your ways, you will never succeed in a commercial kitchen.”
Once lunch is served, cleanup for the next day begins. The stacks of dirty dishes and pans after lunch can often exceed 5 feet tall. “We have the world’s best dishwasher. Her name is Yadira,” Fazio said. “She is a phenom. She is just unbelievable… I believe a dishwasher is the heart and soul of any food service operation.”
The rest of the Cafeteria staff have general roles when it comes to cleanup. Chan often switches roles with a newly hired staff member this year, Juan Gardner. On any given day, one removes the ice from the salad bar while the other stacks silverware in preparation for the next day, and vice versa.
Olman Ramirez, a new member of the LWHS community and Caf Staff, along with Mario Chacón, line supervisor, are the two main people who always clean and close the hot lunch line.
Preparation for the following day’s lunch is crucial. After lunch and cleanup, numerous members of the team do between an hour to an hour and a half of preparation for the next day. This amounts to over 10 hours of preparation in total.
Chan leaves LWHS at around 1:50 p.m. which allows her the time and flexibility that she needs to pursue her passions. For example, Chan runs a business in the makeup industry, where she does makeup for different events, classes and training.
The rest of the Cafeteria staff leave by 2:30 besides Fazio who normally leaves LWHS at 4:30. The allotted two hours gives her the quiet time to get necessary things done, without having to stand at a stove. Because Fazio is in charge of writing the menu, she has to make sure it is done. “I have complete creative autonomy. Nobody has ever told me ‘you can’t do that’ or ‘nobody is gonna eat that’ or ‘we don’t like that’ or ‘that costs too much.’ I balance that out.”
Chan loves seeing students at LWHS grow up. From ninth grade up until senior year, she has and continues to play a vital role in their LWHS experience. “I see these kids like my brothers and sisters,” Chan said.
“I just love it at back-to-school night or senior family night when parents come up to me and tell me ‘oh my gosh, my kid is eating things I never thought they would ever eat. They love the lunch program better than anything else at the school,’” Fazio said. She really values how appreciative students, faculty, staff, families and parents are. “And they are not afraid to tell you,” Fazio said.
