Central Elementary students wouldn’t start filing into the cafeteria for another half hour, but food service staff Jennifer LaVeille and Martha Torres were already setting out the 90 breakfasts they’d be serving that Friday morning.

While LaVeille laid out trays with utensils, sliced bananas and cereal, Torres pulled a big batch of cinnamon rolls out of the oven, filling the kitchen with a delicious scent. Torres then began drizzling the rolls with glaze, making sure to get an even amount on each.

“The kids are all going to look at each other’s breakfast, wondering, ‘Who got the most frosting?’ she said with a chuckle.

Around 9 a.m., as the buses arrived at Central, students wandered their way over to LaVeille and Torres, who were greeting students with smiles and food. As students grabbed trays of food, many mumbled out a quick “thank you!” to the food staff. Some complimented the food – one student looked over all the trays for a minute before saying, “Ah, who am I kidding. They all look delicious!”

By the first bell at 9:25, the cafeteria had cleared out and LaVeille and Torres started prepping for lunch. But one student jogged up to the window a few minutes later, asking if any cinnamon rolls were left. Torres grinned and handed them one of the leftover rolls from that morning.

“We never, ever turn children away,” LaVeille said afterwards. “We always make sure they get what they need.”

LaVeille and Torres have worked together as Central’s food service team since 2014, serving hundreds of meals each day. They love helping students fuel up so they can focus on school.

“I like being a lunch lady, taking care of the kids and making sure they eat,” LaVeille said.

“I love seeing the kids’ smiles,” Torres added. “They’re so cute and so appreciative!”

Both food service staffers are FHS graduates – Torres in 1986 and LaVeille in 1988 – and both have adult children who previously attended Ferndale schools. LaVeille said she started working in Ferndale’s cafeterias in 2001 so she could work a job that allowed her to be home with her kids once they were home from school.

Food service work involves hours of preparation for those brief lunch periods. For example, cinnamon rolls have to be laid out two hours before any student arrived, so they could be fluffy and fully thawed out. LaVeille even puts the lunch entrée – that day, bean and cheese burritos – in the oven before breakfast began, to ensure they’d be ready for the afternoon.

LaVeille and Torres put a lot of care into the taste and presentation of the food they serve students. For example, after the burritos are baked, instead of letting them sit out, LaVeille puts them in a warmer to keep them crispy.

“I always think, ‘How would I want my burrito to look?’” she said. “You want it toasty!”

They also make sure to offer a variety of choices, from the entrées down to the side fruit.

“I try to mix it up for the kids, so they don’t eat the same things over and over,” said Torres.

If there’s extra time between meals, the team will even begin preparing for the next school day’s meals. That Friday morning, Torres prepared waffles, sausage and pineapple for Monday’s breakfast, so she could quickly pop them in the oven that next week. She also prepares vegetables a couple days ahead of serving them.

Despite producing meals on a mass scale, LaVeille and Torres take care to accommodate students with food allergies. For example, they have trays with juice, not milk, for those who are lactose-intolerant.

Staff and students at Central said they appreciate LaVeille and Torres’ dedication to students and sunny disposition.

“They are great food staffers because they’re so cheerful and very understanding of different children’s’ needs,” said Stephanie Hendrickson, a paraeducator at Central who helps in the cafeteria. “And they take the time to get to know the kids’ names.”

“They make the best foods at breakfast, it’s delish!” said second grader Trinity Hanson. “I love coming in this lunchroom.”