What's Cooking?

By John Folan

Throughout the years, we have received food at roughly noon every day. This food has been what kept us going throughout the day, time and time again. But most never ask where this food comes from or why this food is here. This article is being written to fix that misstep that so many students make.

To start with, the menu itself is not made by anyone here at the school, but by officials at the school district. They obtain some of the vegetables from a garden that they possess here on school property, and whatever else they need they get from Tok’s stores or from their distributor in Fairbanks.

The menu needs a certain amount of meat, grain, fruit, and vegetables a week every week of the year. When the menu is decided and the food is obtained, then of course, they have to actually prepare the meal. According to cooks Jennifer James and Rachel Gallen, “We are here 5 ¾  hours a day” working on the cooking and preparing of breakfast and lunch. During this, they go through 150 servings of food, which includes roughly twenty to twenty-five pounds of meat and a similar amount of vegetables.

So when it comes down to it, there is a lot of preparation and work that goes into every meal, enough to cause anyone’s day to become busy. From the menu’s being made with guidelines in mind, to the food being obtained, to the cooking of the food and cleaning of the kitchen, one can easily see how this can take over 5 hours every day. I personally appreciate all of the hard work that they do, and I thank them for all of the delicious meals that they have made for us.