For Every Step Forward

Been a while since I wrote about my work at Wellness in the Schools and the adventures of the lunch room cafeteria. While I have posted photos on Facebook, I have avoided writing. Mostly because the days have been the same, with ups and downs. At the end of a day I just remind myself of all the children I just helped feed real food and its makes the toughest day worthwhile.

So what are some days like you make ask? Some days I walk into the kitchen and the whole menu is already underway, leaving me with preparing salads and plan or work on the next day's menu. Other days--usually days with the heaviest workload--I am prepping SOLO! That's okay for the little things, but when that means opening boxes, preparing a marinade, marinating chicken, finding & making room in the fridge to place the chicken in, keeping track of any ingredients I newly opened for inventory and still doing it all with love so the food taste good, it becomes overwhelming. Needless to say our school feeds about 800 children per day so saying it's a "tough day" is an understatement.

Today I did all the above for tomorrow's Sabroso Chicken. I also (solo) roasted corn and prepared the Black Bean Corn salad. The only thing I hadn't prepared was the rice, but not to worry the Cook made it a point to show me how to "work the steamer"so I can now be capable of doing that too--how sweet! Well, I decided to leave her that remaining task for tomorrow. Did I mention the point of me is to assist the staff, specifically the Cook, to show it's possible to cook from scratch by prepping ahead, reading your recipes and being efficient.

So where does this leave me? At times frustrated, alone, tired physically and mentally. And at the same exact time, strangely enough, ready to face it all tomorrow. I remind myself that change isn't easy and for every step forward I just have to prepare myself to take the next.