Stephanie Burch, JHS school cafeteria manager, has been in charge of the cafeteria for three years. She has been working in the Palm Beach School district for 15 years, 13 of which she has been a manager.

At Jupiter High, Burch is in charge of managing the cafeteria staff while also running the food production for over 3000 students each day. 

Burch starts her day at 5:30 a.m. to begin prepping for the day ahead. In the morning, she does some of her inventory and then starts the prep work for breakfast. Burch’s staff begins arriving anywhere from 6-7:45 a.m., depending on their working hours. 

“Prep work for breakfast consists of turning the warmers on, getting everything unlocked and opened, cooking the hot food and then dividing all breakfast items amongst the cold cart and the two lines inside,” said Burch.

Once Breakfast is served, it is time for the staff to start preparing for lunch.

“The prep work that goes into lunch is definitely a more detailed process,” said Burch.

Burch has a very organized system in the back, with different benches set up for each food item served that day. She divides her co-workers up to start on different tasks to make a more efficient system. 

While one person is preparing and packaging the salads, another is working with the fruit, two bagging the subs and so forth. The cafeteria staff has learned to estimate and prepare the right amount of food each day, but there is always some leftover.

“The cold food is reserved and hot [food] is thrown away, but lately we haven’t thrown a lot out because our student numbers are much higher than anticipated,” Burch said. 

Although much work goes into the process of feeding all of our students, the staff feels that it is all worth it.

“I really enjoy what we do, and I believe that the cafeteria is a place where everyone can come together,” Burch said. “It is a proven fact that teachers can’t teach as well without their students eating breakfast, so those who come in and eat are setting themselves up for a better day.”

Now that you know more about all the hard work our cafeteria staff puts into making our food each day, don’t be afraid to say “Hi” and send your appreciation their way!