Welcome to Food Connects’ series highlighting the amazing essential workers in our community who work hard every day to keep our children fed. Read on to learn more!

ERICA FRANK

Erica is the School Nutrition Site Manager at Central Elementary School in Bellows Falls where she is starting her second year. We sat down with Erica in September to learn more about her work and how things have shifted since March. Here are some highlights from our conversation:

Michelle Pinter-Petrillo (MPP): How long have you been working in food service?

Erica Frank (EF): I’ve been working in food service for close to 14 years. I was a baker for many years and I went back to school for my degree in nutrition, I got out of food service for a number of years and worked as a counselor, and then got back into food when I took this job last year.

MPP: How has COVID-19 impacted what you are doing? 

EF: We don’t get to do as much variety with the kids, which is really hard. I first came back for breakfast and I could only give them certain things. We can no longer give them the choices and that’s really tough. 

We got a salad bar going last year and it really took off. We had so many options and it was so fun. It helped the kids try new things and we just don’t have that this year. 

I loved having the kids be able to come in and say to them “Oh hey, try this I know you usually like that but we don’t have that today, you should try this!” 

Students have to have the right components to make a meal so sometimes I have to chase after them and say you have to take milk or another side. They get all of the components now on their plate but they don’t get to choose it and I think that makes a difference.

When I take out the compost I can see “oh wow that’s a whole apple in there,” but I can’t see who ate what and help them make a different choice the next time which I used to be able to do in the cafeteria.

MPP: What has kept you going during this time? 

EF: When the schools shut down in March, I was able to have enough child care so I could work even though I have two young kids. Knowing that people needed the food and we could still make them food kept me going. And we make good food here. I’m very proud of the food we make. We were even able to open it to not just kids in the school but to the community and that made it nice to come into work and feel proud about feeding our community.

I have a 1st grader and a 2-year old. I’ve gotten lots of support from friends and family to help watch the kids. And I got them into daycare—the two-year-old is in daycare for the first time this year. We are still figuring it out but we still need help. 

MPP: What has been your biggest challenge during this time? 

EF: Dealing with all of the changes like the limited meal offerings, that really is a struggle for me. It’s been hard feeling that the kids aren’t getting the nutrition education I know they could get. But another thing to get me through it is that, hopefully, it is short term. We are pretty good at tackling things as they come on and tackling them as a team. We’ve been working with the teachers, and have navigated how schools are different now.

We have breakfast items at school so I can put together however many bags with the different items and drop them off at each classroom. In the mornings the teachers take their meal counts to see who wants lunch. I come here (BFHS) after my breakfast shift and help them finish any meals for school. After, I pack up insulated bags with all of my meals and bring them back to the school before lunch; I figure out what classroom needs what and I pack it up. I make sure there is milk, all the components, silverware. There are lots of logistics. We are serving 40 meals for breakfast and lunch. We want to make sure that any kid can have breakfast now that it is universal, the teachers have been pretty good at making sure to let kids know it’s not going to cost them anything. They can keep some items for later on cause that’s a big thing too. When kids would come out of breakfast last year you know they were keeping a few things to have for a snack later. Our enrollment for the school is about 60 for each pod, 60 Monday/Tuesday and 60 Thurday/Friday.

MPP: What does the community do to make you feel supported?  

EF: We get a pretty good response for our food which helps—you know that people are enjoying the food that you’re offering. We have families that are thanking us at pickup and others who email, reaching out for delivery and to say thanks. But I miss seeing the kids.

MPP: What advice do you have for someone interested in working in food service?

EF: Look at the overall picture of the job. Sometimes it is very monotonous, where you’re just scooping beans. It might not be very glamorous but if you look in the long run, knowing that you’re feeding people is always a nice feeling and a good thing to keep in mind. There is so much food service opportunity. The idea of mass meals, the amount of logistics, it's a lot tougher than people think but it is very rewarding.

MPP: What brings you joy?

EF: Knowing that I’m serving up local food, and good quality food. We try to do a lot of local foods. We get some pre-made stuff but we still try to get good quality stuff and we actually read the ingredients. I knew Harley did that when I came on, which is part of the reason I came on. Last year, having the ability to make food from scratch and having the ability to actually make homemade food for kids brought me a lot of joy.

I am grateful for the food quality. I’m grateful for the team who comes together at this time to make it work, no drama and just getting the job done. People coming together and bringing lots of different skill sets have been really nice. We’ve made it work and we’ll continue to make it work.