A cheerful attitude and bright smile greet students every day at the lunch register. Hard-working hands in the kitchen prepare nutritious meals ready to be consumed by hungry students. An intelligent mind organizes countless menus and recipes, assembling the cafeteria crew, and ensuring that the workplace and food are in perfect shape each day. The immense responsibility to keep the cafeteria running smoothly lies in the hands of one, hard-working nutrition manager: Sherri Foster-Craft.

Foster-Craft has worked at LCPS for 19 years, starting off as a sub, becoming a cafeteria worker, and making her way to a nutrition manager at Rock Ridge. Serving about 700 entrees, 600 meals, and 200 breakfast items each day, Foster-Craft is the underappreciated force behind the cafeteria doors, as her dedication truly makes a difference in the lives of students, one nutritious meal at a time. 

The minute that Foster-Craft arrives at 6:30 a.m., she is already hard at work. She sets up the kitchen, checks the menu to make sure all the necessary ingredients are there, and figures out what to serve for the day. She also creates an extensive work schedule that everyone follows and ensures everyone knows their assigned jobs for the day. She leads breakfast preparation and cooking each day. “We make a lot of sandwiches, like an egg McMuffin you would get at McDonald’s,” Foster-Craft said. “We do sausage, egg and cheese croissants, chicken croissants, and all kinds of egg and cheese, too. We [also] make breakfast burritos, and the kids really enjoy those.”

Junior Sathvik Ravishankar especially enjoys the lunch. “My favorite lunch items are the cheese pizza, chicken sandwich, and tater tots,” Ravishankar said. “They’re really delicious, and I’m always looking forward to eating them when they’re on the menu.”

Foster-Craft is also in charge of managing the timing of food preparation so that students are eating the freshest food possible. “We’re cooking all day until service starts, and then sometimes we cook in the middle of service,” Foster-Craft said. “Sometimes we’ll start serving, and we’ll count what we have and realize we need to cook some more in the middle of shifts. We try to make everything as fresh as possible. Sometimes an item is better cooked right before you eat it, and sometimes that’s impossible to do, but we try our best to do that, so hopefully that makes the kids eat.”

Foster-Craft works at the register at lunch and is there all day for three whole lunch shifts. She is not only committed to the hard work of managing and making food but finds joy in the process. “Working with the students is my favorite part of the job,” Foster-Craft said. “I love when you guys come through the line, and I get to talk to you. It’s just fun to see you guys interact and have fun with the spirit days. I enjoy it a lot. It just reminds me of when my kids were younger and brings back the good old days.”

Her bright attitude has touched the hearts of many Rock Ridge students. “Whenever I walk in the cafeteria, she always greets me, and if I ever need help trying to find something, she is always there to help me,” Ravhishankar said. “And whenever I leave buying an item, she always says thank you. That always makes me feel great every day thanks to her charismatic personality. She’s really welcoming.”

More than just preparing the food, Foster-Craft is in charge of the tedious process of meeting the strict rules and regulations of the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA). She prepares for federal audits from the USDA by filling out extensive production record paperwork and writing down all of the prepped and leftover food.

Foster-Craft finds this to be the hardest part of her job. “There’s a lot to maintain – like for the production records, we have to prep them in advance,  and then the day that we actually do them, we have to change them because we’ve prepared more or less than what I originally thought, or we didn’t have that item, and we have to change it,” Foster-Craft said. “So, it’s a constant thing that never goes away, and it’s hard because you never can get away from it.”

Additionally, Foster-Craft has to prepare for twice-a-year random inspection checks from the USDA and health department. She has to print out all the recipes to ensure that the correct amount of each ingredient is used for each item served. Temperature logs and calibration of thermometers are also inspected to see if the food meets a certain range. She has to check that all food is cooked to precisely 165 degrees and served from 135 to 140 degrees, and the refrigerator and freezer must be at a certain threshold temperature. 

Foster-Craft’s job as a nutrition manager is never easy as she constantly has to face challenges and adapt to unpredictable situations. “When we had the snow, and we were out all those days, we had little cartons of milk,” Foster-Craft said. “None of it was good when we finally came back, so we had to count it all and then do a notice of loss for all of it.” 

Her ability to overcome difficulties doesn’t end there. “Years ago, we had our freezer go down totally dead,” Foster-Craft said. “I lost all my ice cream and had to fill out a loss for that. It was one of the coldest days in the winter, so we rolled everything outside because it was freezing out there.”

Foster-Craft’s role in the kitchen also expands to keep up with strict sanitation guidelines, where she is one of the only staff who has to take a test every five years to keep up with sanitation and the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan for food safety. She also has to attend various meetings before each year starts to keep up with new regulations from the USDA. 

Along with her countless hours of hard work, Foster-Craft is dedicated to getting students to try new food and eat healthier as making them eat more fruits and vegetables is a struggle. She accomplishes this by organizing fear-factor Fridays once a month. “One year we had a different colored cauliflower, and the kids were looking at it like ‘Did you dye this? I’ve never seen cauliflower pink like this?’” Foster-Craft said.  “It’s good to introduce new things to students and get new products. I like doing taste tests at school because it gives [students] an opportunity to tell us what they like and what tastes good.”

Foster-Craft believes that nutritious meals are essential for students’ well-being, exemplifying just how important her job is. “Your body is made up of what you eat, and it’s important to get all the correct calories and the correct fat, salt, and sugar content,” Foster-Craft said. “Food is controlled in the school environment, which is good because it teaches kids that these are the things you should be eating instead of coming home and eating a whole bag of potato chips.”