The cafeteria workers come in early and clean up student’s mess in the lunchroom, keeping our school running.

Doris Glunt is the kitchen manager at the Swartz Cafeteria.  She comes in at six o’clock every morning and works until two o’clock in the afternoon, the same amount of time at work as someone with a nine-to-five job.  

Glunt has worked for the Carlisle Area School District for 10 years, and she has spent her entire life with food.   

“I have always been involved with food.  I owned my own restaurant for 6 years in Carlisle, and after I gave that up I came here, so I have worked with food every job I’ve ever had,” Glunt said. 

Although it is a lot of work, Glunt enjoys her interactions.  

“I think my employees (are my favorite part of work), I’m a pretty hands on manager, so I’m out there with them.  I like my staff, and we get along,” said Glunt.” Of course we have our difficult days sometimes. Overall I just like people, so that’s what draws me.   And I like the cooking”

Many people don’t realize what all the cafeteria workers do.  

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“I think (the district) cares, but I think that we are at the bottom of the totem pole.  I don’t think that staff or students understand the jobs that we do do,” said Glunt.  “My girls work hard, and there is no break times in here, we just keep going.  I mean, they do get a break but they are constantly going, until we get everything prepped. We do a salad bar, we do a create station which I all homemade items that we have to prepare, so it’s not like a kitchen at home where we have 4 people.  We have at least 400. Just at this school. So I don’t think that they know what all’s involved with our day-to-day basis” 

Glunt isn’t the only ones who notices the poor treatment of the cafeteria workers, Hailey Flickinger, a freshman at CHS notices as well.  

“I mean, I feel like they’re (the students) not as respectful as they should be (towards the cafeteria workers), most people don’t say thank you when they should… those are the people who give you food, you should be respectful of them,” Flickinger said.

There are many ways to show kindness towards cafeteria workers, according to Smart Kids 101, a website devoted to making children better at life, including showing respect, following rules, and cleaning up messes yourself.

“The amount of kids that are in line, angry, hungry teenagers, can be very emotionally taxing” said Jillian Collins, a freshman at CHS.  She notices how hard the cafeteria workers work, and makes sure to smile and make conversation with them.

May third of every year is School Lunch Hero Day, and while the school district hasn’t ever participated in this, high school head principal Michael Black is “looking into the possibility of participation” and is going to “discuss the matter with the person in charge of cafeteria workers.”  

So, should we be treating our cafeteria workers better?  Well, this is a question answered by Smart Kids 101, “A simple please or thank you goes a long way”.