With the first few months of the 2020-2021 Pingree school year over, I thought I’d dive deeper into how our school lunches have changed. I know what you’re thinking: “What could there possibly be that I don’t already know about them? It’s just lunch!” But just wait. Today I’ll be talking about topics ranging from how safe the kitchen staff feels coming back to school to the many safety policies that are being implemented.

This past week I was able to interview Josh Cushman, the head chef here at Pingree. Over the summer and throughout this fall, he and the other members of our kitchen staff have been working alongside our administration to keep Pingree’s lunch program up and running. Thanks to them, we are able to still eat some extremely high quality meals during these challenging times.

I began by asking Mr. Cushman how the pandemic has influenced the number of meals they can serve this year. “I’m trying to keep it fresh while at the same time make meals that you guys will like,” he said. “Last year we could take chances and put out food that might or might not have been a hit, but this year we try to only put out meals we know most of you will like. This limits us in how many different lunches we can make and it’s been a challenge trying to anticipate what everyone will like.”

If you’ve been eating lunch at school this year or even just have friends who do, you’ve probably noticed that there haven’t been any hot meals. I thought it was just a matter of not wanting to serve lukewarm meals, but when I asked Mr. Cushman, it turned out to be related to safety protocols. “If hot meals go under a certain temperature then it goes into what we call the danger zone where bacteria can start to form,” he said. Normally hot meals would be served up right in the cafeteria and kids would be able to immediately eat them. However, because all of the lunches have to be individually packaged, hot meals can’t be kept warm for as long.

I asked Mr. Cushman how COVID-19 has impacted safety procedures in the kitchen. “We’re keeping masks on and wearing gloves all the time, although we actually do this regardless of COVID-19. Overall we’re just trying to keep everybody safe and make sure that we can continue to come into school and stay healthy.” While interviewing him in the kitchens, I noticed that all staff members were being very careful to keep their masks fully covering their noses and mouths, and to maintain a distance of six feet from one another.

Finally, I asked Mr. Cushman how he and the kitchen staff felt coming back into school. “We were all nervous when we started this year,” he said. “We were nervous for ourselves; we were nervous for you guys. But we’re confident in the safety measures that we have put in place, and because of how great a job students and staff have been doing, we all feel much more comfortable coming to campus than we might have otherwise.” 

The fact that Pingree has been mostly successful in keeping our community safe gives me hope. Remembering to keep your masks up and maintaining a six-foot distance is extremely difficult, especially during these times when we’re being socially isolated from many of our loved ones. However, these trying times will pass and soon I’m sure we’ll be eating our favorite Pingree meals again.