City schools food service workers log long days during shutdown

YOUNGSTOWN — While Youngstown City School District and city workers and volunteers distribute breakfasts and lunches to students each Monday throughout the school shutdown, work at the YCSD Central Kitchen is a 10-hour-a-day, four- to-five-day-a-week operation.

“Our work doesn’t stop Monday afternoon,” said Sue Paris, YCSD’s chief of food service. “Our employees are logging long hours every day because they know how important it is that our scholars are fed throughout this pandemic.”

Distribution of five days of breakfasts and lunches happens every Monday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., but central kitchen workers begin much earlier.

“We get here about 6 [a.m.] and we have 10 workers who make sure 15,000 meals get packed and put on the trucks to go to the different sites,” said Tascin Brooks, food service coordinator.

Justin Jennings, YCSD CEO, commends the employees for their commitment and hard work.

“Our food service department is a well-oiled machine,” Jennings said. “These workers are here daily, working hard, taking care of our scholars and making sure we provide breakfasts and lunches throughout this crisis. I appreciate the dedication of all of our employees who make our food distribution happen every week.”

Mondays, the 15,000 packed lunches and 300 cases of milk are shipped from Central Kitchen to each distribution site.

After food distribution, food service tallies food that’s been given out, ensuring any items that come back to Central Kitchen are properly stored.

Work resumes about 7 a.m. each Tuesday and Wednesday, when the 10 employees pack lunches, assembly-line style, making sure each meal has the required components. The meals are then machine sealed.

Food service workers are packing about 7,000 meals per day each Tuesday and Wednesday. That compares to about 2,500 per day when schools are in session.

Workers wear gloves and masks in accordance with health and safety regulations and each employee’s temperature is taken at the start of his or her shift to ensure no one has a fever.

Each Thursday, food service and employees from YCSD’s Operations Department stack elements for students’ breakfasts onto pallets that are loaded onto trucks and taken to the food distribution sites.

“They move pallets of cereal, cereal bars, applesauce and fruit juice to the schools,” Brooks said. “They take 150 cases of food to each school for breakfast alone.”

Paris said it’s about more than doing a job for food service workers.

“Our employees are very dedicated and they work hard because they know how important this work is,” she said. “We know that we’re all here for the scholars.”

This story was originally published April 20, 2020 at 4:23 AM with the headline "City schools food service workers log long days during shutdown."