How Satellite Kitchens Impact Student Nutrition and Experience | The Inside Wayzata Podcast

This episode explores the impact of satellite kitchens on student experience, the logistical challenges of current food service operations, and how reimagining school kitchen facilities can enhance nutrition, efficiency, and student engagement.

Keywords: school nutrition, satellite kitchens, school referendum, school food logistics, student experience, school kitchen renovation

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Wayzata Cafes and the Referendum
06:03 Understanding Satellite Kitchens
10:12 Logistical Challenges of Food Delivery
12:39 Quality Control in Food Service
17:15 Menu Planning and Student Preferences
19:49 Space Constraints in School Kitchens
22:34 Envisioning Fully Functioning Kitchens
31:57 Favorite School Lunches and Nostalgia

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Well, hi everyone. We're here on the next episode of the Inside Wise podcast. And today we are talking about the referendums and specifically about uh satellite kitchens. And you're probably wondering how does that relate to the referendum? Well, question two on the ballot is um includes, you know, obviously the new schools and addition to the high school, but also includes some upgrades to some of our existing buildings, and that includes building out fully functioning kitchens at Birchview, Greenwood, and Sunset Hill. So today we are here at Sunset Hill Elementary in what we refer to as a satellite kitchen. We'll get more into that, but uh I have Michelle Sagadel, who's the director of Y Zeta Cafes, and I also have Joanne Kurd, who is a YZA Cafes assistant here at Sunset Hill. Thank you for joining me.

SPEAKER_03 0:54

Yes, thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Michelle is a recurring guest. You know, people loved the last episode so much. So thought we'd have her back. Okay, so we're gonna start with kind of the overall grounding for YZA Cafes. From your perspective, how does the kitchen environment directly impact the student experience?

SPEAKER_03 1:14

That's a good way to start. Uh I think it, I think it's twofold. Uh the student experience. Well, I think we all know lunchtime is probably one of their favorite parts of the school day. Uh, it is their time to have their social time and also be able to enjoy a meal. So you have that piece of it, is it is their their time to kind of decompress, maybe in some aspects. Uh Joanne, if you would you probably attest to that, to the excitement. Uh and then secondly, it is the it is nourishing their bodies to get them through the school day and to be able to focus in the classroom. So there is that piece of that nutrition part, but the the food and the excitement and the time of day, I would say, is one of the biggest parts of the student experience each day.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

The nutrition is important to the academic success success of our students. And so that's a very important piece for us as cafe assistants, um, serving nutritious, healthy meals that the children enjoy. And this is their time to hang out with their friends, um, kind of, you know, chill, I guess, with them and eat their food. Um, it's really just the part of their day where they're free to just be themselves.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Well, and like when I stumble across a cafeteer during the school day, I don't know if chill is the word I would use. So what is it like for you, Joanne? Is there's hundreds of students coming through each day and and imagine there's some level of chaos, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:50

It can be a very frenetic environment. Uh chaotic is a great way to describe it, but uh we move very fast through our lunches. We go grade by grade, starting at 10:35 in the morning. Uh, we hit the ground running, we serve uh first grade. It's very loud. Uh uh, you know, they're excited to be eating lunch. Uh, and then we just go from there. We go grade through grade, and the whole day is just one long blur. Uh, and then at one o'clock, that's when we serve our last lunch, and then we shut everything down, and then then we get out of here.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

For you, Michelle. So Joanne is here at sunset, but it, you know, you kind of oversee a hall of it, right? So how we often talk about, you know, there we have the tagline, excellence for each and every student. How when you think about Y Zeta Cafes and when you think about the work you do, how does nutrition mirror that commitment in your mind?

SPEAKER_03 3:52

Yeah, uh, it's that's part of our district mission that the each and every, and then if you look at our Why Zeta Cafes tagline, it is eat, connect, belong. So it is an ultimate goal for us to try to in, you know, you're serving thousands of meals a day. Um, how can we ensure that we're providing food that students can connect to? And that means a lot of different things for students. Um, some of it is just a meal that they're able to enjoy, some of it is, you know, connecting to their culture. And it may just be introducing a new fruit or vegetable. So we also, though, at the end of the day, we want to ensure they're eating their food. So we're providing that that the eat part of our can of our tagline. Um, but then the connection and belonging. We also want to be able to tie what they're seeing here in the lunchroom to to themselves and making sure that they that they feel welcome in the in the environment and enjoy, enjoy that part of their free day.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

For you, Joanne. Obviously, during lunch and leading up to lunch and after lunch, there's a lot going on. Like you're imagine moving around very quickly. But when we think about that connection piece, are you able to connect with students over what they're uh over over a meal, so to speak?

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Yeah. Um, I think that's the most rewarding part of my job is getting to connect with the kids here and being part of their education. I mean, I'm not a teacher, I'm just here to, you know, serve them food, but I try to have little connections with them every day. I try to learn everybody's names. I'm pretty good with names here. I know a lot of them. And I like to ask kids like, what are you doing this weekend? Um, you know, what are you learning today? Uh we talk about like Pink Pantherists and Zara Larson and like all the hot news songs that they have, and I'll sing them to them.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

I feel like this is like another podcast episode what's Joanne hearing in the lunchline.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

That would be a good one. Yeah. You know, we hear a lot of interesting things from our students, uh probably more than you would guess. Uh and yeah, it that is the most special part for me is just getting to know uh our students one-on-one.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

That's great. All right, so let's switch gears a little bit and talk about um the referendum and specifically how um what is on the ballot, how it should impact why it's not a cafe. So I've heard this term a lot: satellite kitchen. Like, and it it's not a kitchen and a satellite in space. What is a satellite kitchen?

SPEAKER_03 6:31

It's a great question. It's a term that we use so common within our department that when I am out speaking to others too, it is it is that when I say satellite kitchen, there exactly what does that mean? Uh in our terms, it is a kitchen that does not have a fully functioning kitchen. And I when I say functioning, I am meaning all aspects, aspects of a kitchen that goes into making a meal. That is all the hot equipment that is used to prepare the food. That is the storage that is there to receive the items and the food products, and that is walk-in coolers, walk-in freezers. Uh, and I would say that was be the two biggest pieces. So Sunset Hill currently they have a prep space, which you probably can see in the background, um, and probably capturing the whole prep space in the background uh due to the size. And then they have a very small dry storage area, and then they are only able to utilize what we call reach-in coolers and freezers, which is where you open a door like you would at home and you you hold your product. So that space is a very um it's a big concern too.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

So how okay, so from what I'm hearing, yeah. Food is not made here, correct?

SPEAKER_03 7:45

Yes, correct. The like they produce their fruits and vegetables on site here. But yeah, the hot food then it needs to be brought in from another site that has the facilities to produce what they need for lunch.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Okay, so food is made on another site, so another school.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

And it is how does it get here?

SPEAKER_03 8:04

That's a great question, too. Uh it is transported on uh on a truck, on a warehouse truck. Okay each morning, and their food specifically for sunset is prepared at Oakwood Elementary. I think that is getting loaded. The cart the carts are getting loaded around 8:45, 9 in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

Between 9 and 9, 9.15 is the hard cutoff. Um, it has to be on the truck to get here, and it gets here between like 9:35 and 9.50. Um, and at that point, we uh take the hot carts.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

So you're waiting here for the food to arrive and you're not 100% sure when it's gonna get here.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Yep, we have to wait. And it really depends. It can come earlier, it can be later, just depending on what we're serving for lunch that day.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

And later is probably not ideal.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Not ideal. Um, because also the truck is delivering to us here at Sunset Hill, but right after it goes to Birchview Elementary. So there's two different deliveries going on the truck. And when it comes here, the hot food carts, um, we roll them back into our kitchen area, and then we have to account for everything. So we have to make sure that all the food that was ordered is actually on the carts. Then we have to temp it and make sure that it's at the right temperature. On cold winter days, when it's negative 20, that can be a challenge for us. Um you know, it holds heat, but not there are extreme conditions where it makes it more challenging. And once it's all here, we unload it and uh we serve from our um steam tables the food. And so we have all of our food kept in the hot cabinets throughout the throughout the entire day.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Okay. That's a lot going on there. So I just logistically, like as you both were talking, I'm just thinking of like a million like potential issues, like I said, it's cold out. What if there's an issue with the truck? What if there's an issue with at Oakwood where they're making the food, now all of a sudden there's like this ripple effect to sunset and then birch view. I assume you've run into some of those logistical challenges periodically. I I obviously pivot the best you can when they happen, but I assume that is a main concern.

SPEAKER_03 10:29

Oh, I always uh I think we have probably run into most of those unexpected situations where now to us it's maybe a little bit more second nature because we are dealing with satelliting the food on a daily basis from one site to the other. Um, but like Joanne was saying on a cold winter day, there there is no holding heat in a lot of those things. It still holds the heat, but um not to the degree that we would want it to.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Yeah, so hot food loaded in a cart, in a truck.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

In your yeah, it's like you know, it'd be like taking a steaming pot of water out into the cold. You can just imagine the steam and what is happening to that pot. It's losing losing all that heat. Uh, we've had where trucks, the lift gate breaks down. Um so you that then again, you pivot and you just get the food off the truck in another shape or man, like it still gets here.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Uh yeah, students need to eat, right? Like, oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

Oakwood, I think they've had ovens go down in the morning. Thankfully, they have you know another oven that they can switch to, but it's a little bit more uh time constrained in in those situations.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

And even little challenges like we've had um instances where when we unload the truck, we take Birchview's hot carts off instead of ours. And then all of a sudden we're looking at it, trying to count up what we have, and we say, This isn't right. We have less than we have.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Because you don't have the exact same number of students, exactly, or dietary needs, right? Like that's a huge, huge thing.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

Special, yep, special diets, I think, have gone into you know the other school's cart, and yep, that is why they have to check everything in on a daily basis, is to it's another checkpoint of ensuring everything is there for service because the students are coming whether we're ready or not.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Yeah. And I I has there been moments where there's enough of a delay. I mean, I think it like weather, it's Minnesota, it snows, like obviously sunset maybe is first on the on the stop, but at Birchview, that are they like, where's our food?

SPEAKER_03 12:35

Yes, yes, there are yes, there have been days, I think their first lunch comes at there's first students at Birchview, I believe 1040, and it's been like 1015, 1020, just due to the road conditions, and they're like, Where are they?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Oh my goodness, yeah, yeah, and when you take the food in, so you have to make sure it's it's not as simple as like, all right, we have the food, throw it on a plate. You you can't just take the food off the truck and just throw it on a plate, right? There's I assume there's rules on like we need to, you said talked about taking making sure something's up to temp. So you that timing is so important to make sure you have enough time to do that.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

Yes. So to follow our health code regulations, we have to make sure that our food is at the right temperature and then it holds at the right temperature. And um, that takes time for us to, you know, have to go through and temp everything that we have. And then once we've accounted for it and everything is at the right temperature, then we're putting it on our serving line so that we can serve it.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

And what about like the storage? Because obviously not all food is the same size and in this in the same size container, you know, think about your own house, like a gallon of milk takes up more space than uh, you know, a little thing of fruit. Do you run into logistical challenges with like storing food? I assume you've tried to prepare for that as much as possible, but every day is a little different, I would assume.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

Yeah, when we talk about like um, like if we talk about like hamburger day, what comes on our hot food carts are hamburgers and french fries. And um with our french fries, it's so hard to maintain like a high quality French fry in a hot food cabinet that's full of humid moisture, which is great for the hamburger patties, yeah, but not for the potato. And so what often happens at our school, and what our students tell us all the time is that our fries are too soggy, and it's just really hard to um to keep them crisp in there because it's they're not really intended to be like that. You know, you hold them in there for two hours and the human environment, they're gonna get soggy. And our children are so used to a perfectly crisp, perfectly cooked fry because everybody has an air fryer now. And so if your mom makes you French fries at home, it's almost as good as McDonald's. And then when you have them here at school, it's a disappointing experience when it's not at the quality that you think.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Well, yeah, I mean, it we I think a lot of people listening have gotten takeout before and have experienced whether it's fries or some other food, it's just not the same when it's transported. And then, you know, we you talked about it. When is the last lunch here? What time is the last lunch start?

SPEAKER_02 15:31

1245.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

So if the food is made at nine in the morning and then it's effectively kept warm for three, almost four hours. Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

Yeah, I think it's it's the quality, and that is the biggest struggle that we encounter. Um, you know, you're you can't batch cook. We call it batch cooking, which means in our kitchen terms is you're producing food in a timely manner. So you're not producing it and holding it in a cabinet, you're producing it almost just in time for when the students come through. You're not able to do that at our satellite sites because they don't have that hot cooking. You know, and you see it, I will say today we were meeting with students for Student Choice Day and pizza was on the menu and they're talking about the cheese on the pizza. And at the end of the day, you you can't control that quality piece of it when again it's sitting in, it would be just probably like you're picking up pizza that was sitting at the rest at the pizza shop for a couple hours under their hot lamps, and you know, they're keeping it warm, but the quality is compromised at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

The food is safe. It is safe. May I taste as good, right?

SPEAKER_03 16:38

That's kind of a it's the quality. It is the quality, and that is something that every single, I would say every single employee in our kitchens pride themselves on is providing a high quality meal for students to enjoy. And when you have some things that are up against you, we make our best, we do the best we can when we write our menus. We do try to test as much as we can. And how will it hold at a satellite site? Uh so it is, it's part of a overall bigger operation picture, you know, that we look at too is well, we have satellite sites, so we might not be able to do this menu item because it just the quality won't hold. We were just talking about scrambled eggs. You can imagine scrambled eggs sitting for hours on they, you know, they just don't, they're not gonna, they're and they might not taste the same too.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

Just you know, but yeah, we we do these these menus for all nine of our elementary schools where we let each elementary school pick the whole menu once in the school year.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

And recently we had a school vote on basically something akin to breakfast, where it's like they wanted like tater tots, scrambled eggs, but we can't do scrambled eggs for our schools because it won't hold at the satellite sites. So we have to pivot to another uh a different product.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Um, you know, so that can be a challenge. You know, we can't all use the same thing because three of the schools can't hold it or it won't be uh of good quality.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Well, yeah, and then that's back to the the kind of the core mission of each and every thinking about some schools, they can have scrambled eggs, they can do these things, and that's you know, that's not fair to students at sunset that they want scrambled eggs, but keeping scrambled eggs warm for three and a half hours isn't possible. Okay, so to recap, for Sunset Hill, food is made at Oakwood around 8 30, 9 in the morning. It's loaded onto a truck, it is trucked over here, you pull it off the truck, and then you have to make sure it's at temp, and then you do your best to keep it warm until it's served from starting at like before 11. 1035 up until almost one o'clock.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

1245, yeah. One o'clock is when we're done.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Okay. That's a lot. Yeah. Um let's pivot a little bit to you know not only is there like focusing on the food and the quality, part of what is on the ballot for um for the referendum is kind of reimagining the space. Now, obviously, enough space to cook and make the food on site here is a big piece of that. But what are some other space constraints here at Sunset?

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Oh, I was like, Joanne gets this one and she knows it, and it's her daily life. It is.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Um well, we should add, like, you might not be able to hear it. We are sitting next to the gym right now, and there's like kind of a temporary divider, and there are kids yelling, and we start to hear each other.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Yeah, we do share a room with the gym. There's a partition wall in the middle that we can open up when we have assemblies. Um, some of the constraints we have here are our dry storage room is very small. Um, and not only is it small, but it's filled with stock. Um and so what we have to do to go from one end of the room to the other is actually sidle, you know, scooch, shimmy in like a one-foot area because it's just so full of boxes. And these are our boxes that we need to be able to serve lunch. So, like boxes of chips, of granola bars, sunflower seeds, everything that we need to be able to do the service. And then our reach and coolers um and our chest freezer. We play Tetris every day when we receive our um stock off the truck um to be able to fit the things that we need in there. Um so we're constantly lifting heavy boxes, repositioning them in there, rotating the stock. We have two milk coolers um that really can fit just as much as we need. And sometimes it's not enough space, and we run out of milk, and then we have to switch to shelf stable milk, which is more expensive. It's not as cheap as just regular cartons of milk. Um and then the the prep space in the back is very constrained. So we're often running into each other. We always make jokes about there being too many cooks in the kitchen, literally. Um and these are the things that we, you know, kind of we deal with them so often that we have kind of accepted it's kind of normal for us. But if any other uh culinary employee from a non satellite school came here, it would just be like, what is this? Why is everything so small and you know, cramped?

SPEAKER_03 21:54

And they're yeah, they're I would it in overall big picture, you're just not able to be as efficient as you probably. probably want to be because there is not the space. There is not the facility. It's just not, it's not equipped to be able to do that. So it is uh like Joanne said, it's Tetris. It's a puzzle piece. It's constant moving a product just to get it so there's space for you to do something else.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Yeah. Okay. So we've talked a lot about the challenges. Let's pivot a little bit to some of the possibilities as as you imagine and dream about fully functioning kitchen here at Sunset and Birchview and Greenwood. Big picture, you know, before we go into some of the details, what would it mean for you to have fully functioning kitchens at all all the schools?

SPEAKER_03 22:45

That that's easy. It's the student. And we talked about it before it's their student experience. Uh in whether it is a slice of pizza or a homemade product of let's say taco meat or I you know we we do sambusas. It is being able to provide the students the food at a quality that that is the biggest piece. It's the quality of the food products and the ingredients that go into it. I mean none of us want to eat a lukewarm chicken patty sandwich or you know a lukewarm piece of pizza. Our goal is to nourish the students and quality plays a huge part of that and what they actually then consume at the end of the day. If it is not something to their expectations or you know it is lukewarm or they're not enjoying the meal and they don't eat it, that ultimately impacts their learning in the classroom.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

What about you, Joanne? When we when I if you imagine a if it's if you can a fully functioning kitchen here, like what's the first thing that comes to your mind?

SPEAKER_02 23:50

I think like we're saying serving our children a healthy nutritious meal with less like prepackaged or processed foods, being able to do things from scratch, being able to serve high quality products where you know we don't have things that are getting soggy in our warmers. And that can extend to other things too like our breakfast menu is kind of confined to just things that we can you know take from frozen and defrost for them. But if we all had full functioning kitchens we could look at different options like scrambled eggs maybe or you know cinnamon rolls, something like that. There are probably a world of products that we just haven't been able to explore because we don't have the capability to cook them here.

SPEAKER_03 24:39

And I know this is kind of jumping a little bit back to the challenges but something that is a a challenge and it again it impacts the student experience is because it is a satellite site and even though the students put their choices in each day and there's a lunch count that is taken, students change their mind. They change their mind or they might see they might come to lunch and they might see what we're serving and they're like, oh I want the hot choice instead of the cold choice today. So there are times even though we send X more food than what was ordered that they do run out of food. And not saying they don't get a meal it's just might not be their first choice. And ultimately we want to be able to provide them with their choices when they come to us because they can't, you know, if you think of something throwing it in the oven it might take 20 to 30 minutes. Well for Sunset Hill they need about an hour because you have to think of the drive time someone's then putting it in their car and bringing it over from Oakwood and bringing it into the building. So it that is a I would say that was one of the biggest struggles too that they do they do encounter.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

Well I think anyone who has young kids like one day they like something the next next day they don't and but I think you brought up a point about efficiency. Now obviously this is a big investment initially but how you know how would fully functioning kitchens impact efficiency of preparing all these meals?

SPEAKER_03 26:10

Efficiency uh there are district resources that do get tied up in the daily just operational needs to get the meals transported where they're at uh so there could be future resources that could be allocated elsewhere. Efficiency at the end of the day is a a term in kitchens that are that we use for just the workload on staff and how does their workday look like what does their workday look like what is their workload if they can they're not moving a box three times they might be able to produce you know a more scratch made food item in the back of the house in the back of the kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

So a lot of the energy is is put in stuff here right like I assume a lot of your time is you're moving food from one place to another and yeah if you could invest more time in making food like I assume that is is energizing to think about.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Yeah and and uh when we when we think about what Oakwood has to do for Sunset and Birchview, um they get deliveries from our vendors and they have to put it in their space. So they're holding stock frozen and refrigerated and dry stock for three schools and every day somebody has to load it onto a truck to deliver it to the other two schools. And so it's like we have our stock moving twice once from the vendor to Oakwood and then to Sunset or Birchview. Where if we talk about having enough space here in our stock rooms, we would increase efficiency by having just the vendor do a one stop here and then the boxes move from the truck here and not in a in-between space.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Right.

SPEAKER_02 27:59

And that's strain on labor too like there's somebody over there that has to schlep boxes every day.

SPEAKER_03 28:06

And they're and to that point they're making between Oakwood does Sunset Hill and Birchview. So you know they're probably making seven to eight hundred meals lunches in an hour time frame where comparable sites have you know a couple hours three hours because they're batch cooking they're breaking that quantity down into smaller parts of the day because that's when the students are coming.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

So it allows them to be more efficient and better serve students too yeah yeah all right so we talked about a you know the student choice days how much excitement do you think students would have if they could truly have access to all the things we've talked about for different meal options and truly have more ownership over the meals at their school I mean I think with student choice days I do know um we have a little bit of parameters on them on what they can do.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

They're very creative. It is actually a lot of fun hearing the ideas they they do come up with uh I think again it just comes back to at the end of the day what they ultimately end up picking uh may we may need to adjust specifically for our satellite sites. Like we're talking about scrambled eggs. We can serve a different type of egg it's more of an egg patty but it's not it's not the same. It's not scrambled eggs. So it is you know looking at then what what are the students picking and they're so excited to pick it for every single elementary school. But you know knowing that our satellite sites might not get the exact same menu because of that portion of it, it, you know, it takes the fun away of it in some aspects uh because you you want to be able to have them be so excited to receive what everyone else is receiving on the menu. We try to keep the menus as close as possible. But ultimately when the students are picking it uh we want to also deliver what they what they did decide and choose to put on the menu that day.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

How do you think the student experience would change if there's a fully functioning kitchen at Sunset Hill I don't think we'll ever do steak and lobster like they ask for every time even if we had a fully functioning kitchen. But I think whatever parameters that we have set for them would be expanded because we'd be able to do different things. You know right now we see a lot of they vote for chicken chunks, chicken tenders a lot I'm sure we could do more than just that if we all had the ability to use ovens and and steamers and things like that on site everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Okay what is the one food that you've wanted to prepare here that you couldn't because of the limitations of the satellite kitchen.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

I don't know about prepare that's a good question. I don't know about prepare but I would say like it I mean front I we hear so much about French fries and potatoes.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

It's the simple things.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Yeah I think that we have a very expansive menu. We do lots of different things like around the world where we highlight different cultures foods student choice days to see what the kids like we do farm to table. So you know we have a great menu let's see what else we can do if we all have a combi oven.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Okay as we close I think I asked you this the last time what is your favorite thing that Wise At a cafe serves?

SPEAKER_03 31:37

Oh you did ask me you did so I'm gonna have Joanne go first.

SPEAKER_02 31:42

My favorite is orange chicken day um orange chicken with the brown rice there's two variations there's orange chicken day with lomain and orange chicken day with brown rice so mine's brown rice.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

Our students' favorite day here at Sunset Hill is walking taco day uh that's classic a classic one here for us they love it I'm sure it's not messy at all in here it's the messiest I'm trying to think I think last time I said anything taco if it's breedable or tacos or even soft shell tacos that's my favorite menu um but I will say like Joanne mentioned the around the world those those are fun menu days uh we've done the sambooses are really good uh we did Swedish meatballs and just something different and fun for the students into enjoy so doing the different menu days too are just fun to experience that do you either of you remember your favorite school lunch item as a kid yes they don't make it anymore the square pizza they make it they make it I'm pretty sure it's still out there is it yes I'm pretty sure it is we gotta do like a flashback to the 90s day or something like a retro all the staff will be so excited it's like a four by six it's a four by uh square pizza so cheese like product on top yes yeah and so when it fits in the square of the lunch tray for this perfectly it is I think still out there I will look for you Joanne and if you can find it that would be amazing yeah yeah I someone else was talking about like the pull apart like cheese sticks and they're like lightly breaded I don't know that's maybe that was a Wisconsin thing but um yeah that's great.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

So for those listening if you want to learn more about any of um you know anything with the referendum specifically um these satellite kitchens we actually have a video on our website so vote dot why's schools dot org there's a video and we actually walk through a little bit of the process of um we were at Oakwood and we recorded um some of that prep and the loading up and then and some of the you know pulling the the carts off the truck so it's kind of a good visual to see um the process but you can go there and and learn more about all of this and and the rest of our friends. So and again uh election day April 14th you can vote early uh before then at the District Service Center. Michelle Joanne thank you for joining us we appreciate it thanks for having us function