Walking into the Commons during lunch with hundreds of other students can be hectic as they all jam into the lunch line to pick their meals. But just imagine what it is like on the other side of the counter, as a lunch lady.

However, a lunch lady’s job does not simply consist of serving lunch. Hours of preparation before and after lunch are necessary to make sure lunch block runs smoothly.

Lunch lady Janet Caruso starts her day at 5:45 every morning. As the only person in the kitchen for the first three hours of the day, she begins her work by cooking the daily homemade soups and meals. Due to recent cutbacks, Caruso must do the work of two lunch ladies by herself in the mornings.

The kitchen staff makes fresh salads every day and potato salad every week, while the meat for the deli is sliced fresh twice a week. Other foods, such as the burgers, are frozen.

“I just set everything up to go so that when the other girls come in, they just continue and finish up what I started,” Caruso said.

Caruso finds that her job has become second nature to her over the years because of its repetitive nature.

“It’s pretty basic stuff, and it’s very repetitive,” Caruso said. “Every Monday, every Tuesday, it’s the same thing, so it makes everything easier.”

But there have been many changes to the kitchen staff’s routine with the move to the new school.

Not only is there new equipment, but the size of the new kitchen is also much bigger than that of the old.

“Before, we were all within a 30-foot radius of each other, but now someone’s 70 feet away from you, and it’s hard to communicate,” Caruso said. “We used to be able to yell across the room, but now it’s difficult.”

The kitchen staff also hired two more lunch ladies to work the registers at lunch so that there were enough staff members to man all of the stations.

While the cafeteria staff only made about 100 or 200 lunches in the old school, the staff now makes almost 400 lunches a day due to the higher demand for meals. While the snack bar was popular in the old school, more students are switching to buying meals from the main lunch line in the new school.

Along with preparing school lunches, the cafeteria staff also has to get ready for catering jobs for school functions as well as for other nearby events.

After all the early morning preparation comes the anticipated lunch hour. For the lunch ladies, first lunch is the busiest. According to Caruso, WHS students and faculty consume approximately 75 percent of the cafeteria’s food during first lunch, so the kitchen staff must be ready with the right amount of food.

After first lunch, the lunch ladies check their inventory to see what they need for second and third lunch and cook more food if there is enough time.

“It’s just crazy. Everyone comes in at once, but the kids are really good here,” Caruso said. “They are really patient and understanding. You get a couple of pushers and shovers, but by the end of the year they get it …. It’s great. You couldn’t ask for a better group of kids, you know?”

Caruso and the other lunch ladies have been able to develop genuine relationships with WHS students.

“They’re like my own kids,” Caruso said, explaining that it is easy to get to know everyone in such a small school. “I probably see them more than their parents see them, and a lot of them call me ‘Ma.’”

Caruso even jokes around with students and makes sure that she learns everyone’s name.

“[Students] come in, and I’ve got the spoon in my hand and I say, ‘Get outta here.’ I yell at them, and we joke around. It’s fun,” Caruso said. “What’s nice about the small school is that I know who everybody is. It kind of freaks out the freshmen, but I know everybody’s name, and they’re like ‘Wow, you know my name?’ and I’m like ‘Oh yeah.’”

Getting to know the students even helps the lunch ladies make sure that students don’t break any rules in the lunch line.

“They try to get away with stuff, but once they realize that we know who they are, they won’t try to do it anymore,” Caruso said.

For Caruso, getting to know the students is the best part of the job.

“What makes this job better is when you finally get out there to serve the kids. Most of them appreciate it, and they’re just really great kids,” Caruso said. “The kids keep us going. They’re the reason why we come back every day, I think for me [at least].”

“It’s a good time,” Caruso said. “It’s intense, it’s hard work, but you have to have a sense of humor, and we try to laugh a lot.”