Behind the scenes: cafeteria staff makes lunch for 1,000 students

BY JAKE ROTHSTEIN Head Photographer

As lunch starts, students rush to get into lines to enter their seven-digit student ID and grab their free lunch. But behind every fruit cup, sandwich, pasta or burger, there is more work than initially meets the eye.

At 5 a.m., far before the sun rises, cafeteria manager Vicki Ottoboni is already in the cafeteria preparing meals for the day, turning on the warmers, boiling water or making rice to feed anywhere from 950 to 1,200 students a day — all while listening to the morning radio. In Ottoboni’s nine years at Burlingame, the cafeteria has never been so busy.

“When I started here at Burlingame, and up until Covid, we were maybe making 250 to 300 meals a day total [for] brunch and lunch,” Ottoboni said. “Now we’re making 1,000 plus per day, so that’s a huge change.”

Due to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) universal meal program, snacks and lunches have been available for all public school students free of charge since 2020. Although the nationwide program is set to expire on June 30, 2023, returning to a meal service solely for food-secure students, California will allocate $650 million per year to continue providing free meals for students.

Even before the pandemic, the cafeteria served a wide variety of meals, offering around 17 different lunch options and nine options for brunch. Retaining these options amid increased demand for meals put a strain on the district’s food suppliers, forcing the cafeteria to adapt while still providing the same variety of meals.

“Right now, we’ve got a shortage, so we can’t get muffin mix to make muffins. So they sent me muffins that are prepackaged,” said Ottoboni. “Last year [there was a shortage of] containers that you actually put all the food in. So every day, the kids were like, ‘oh, it’s in a different container’...it’s just a constant battle.”

Last year, students from Bay University — a school for students 18 to 22 years old with moderate-to-severe disabilities — helped with meal preparation. Throughout the year, two or three Bay University students came in once a week to assist Ottoboni. The students started by learning basic skills, such as using the dishwasher, and then moved on to helping with other tasks, such as serving food behind the counter.

The cafeteria doesn’t only employ Bay University students; they hire students from all across campus. Students who work in the cafeteria are dismissed from class five minutes before lunch starts, giving them time to get to the cafeteria to work a 15-minute shift.

“Most of the time, I’m on the register where students enter their numbers,” said sophomore Ryan Wang, who works in the cafeteria. “It is fairly easy because I only need to press two buttons [on the screen] for every student because lunch is free now. You have to miss like half of the lunch, so you don’t really have time to finish your lunch… but you get paid well, so I think that’s worth it.”

As of late, the cafeteria has added paid items such as chips and water that students can buy alongside a free meal. They plan on adding more in the near future.

“The federal government did a snack program, and that’s why you would get your chips for free in addition to your brunch, and they’ve dropped that program,” said Ottoboni. “The big thing is that kids or parents need to put money on their account so that they have money to buy the snacks.”

Currently, Ottoboni is searching for more students to work in the cafeteria.

“We’re always looking for students. Last year, we lost a few because of them graduating, and we’re a little short this year,” said Ottoboni. “We’re always hiring. We’ll hire 15. We’ll hire 20 kids. It doesn’t matter. It’s just whoever wants to work. We’re willing to have them work, and it’s super easy. It’s not a hard job at all.”