More people than ever are standing in the lunch lines having a brief five-second interaction with the lunch staff, and their conversation usually includes a food order and a thank you. However, more often than not, they don’t know who they are talking to, and how much the lunch staff cares about making the students a meal worth eating. Behind the job, the staff are fun and charismatic people with a passion for what they do. Covid has made their jobs harder, but to the students’ delight, has also been keeping the meals free.

Mina Bersamina, Tamara Westmoreland, and Brittney Ellingson are three members of the Camas School District (CSD) lunch staff. 

Bersamina typically works at the North Commons Cafeteria where she will joke with the kids as she serves them their lunch. Bersamina says that her relationships with the students are so close that she will even alter some orders specifically for the student she’s serving. She is retired, but before she began working at CHS she worked in many other places. “I’ve had like five jobs, or five different careers, I was a paralegal, and I was an engineer. I was a bunch of stuff.”

Bersamina is a proud second-generation lunch staff, following in the footsteps of her mother. “I did it because my mom was one and I was curious about it, but I just fell in love with it.”

Ellingson is a mom who balances two jobs, one at Skamania Lodge, and her job as a lunch staff at CHS. Her new year’s resolution is to “be more positive and make each day count. To be kind to everybody because with Covid and everything you don’t know what people are going through, so just show everyone kindness.”

Westmoreland, similar to Ellingson, is also a mom balancing two jobs. Early in the morning, she works at Safeway, also making food. 

“I went to Prairie High School and we had a Taco Bell… I got the nachos every day, and now the nachos are one of my favorite things to make,” said Brittney Ellingson.

Junior Sam Stark appreciates her effort, saying, “I like the rice bowls, tacos, and the nachos are pretty good too.” 

Fellow junior Kate Damore agreed about the tacos, saying, “I like the tacos and the tater tots.”

Covid changed every aspect of people’s daily lives, and the Camas High School (CHS) cafeteria is no different. Not only do the staff have to wear masks and put up plexiglass, but they also have to think about the way students eat their lunch. The staff has had to eliminate the salad bar option because of Covid and also has minimized food options in other ways as well.  Westmoreland, said, “Sanitation is through the roof, we have to sanitize all the time.”

Ellingson’s job is also being impacted in the kitchen. “A lot of the things we order, they’ll be out of stock, so we just have to think of replacements or something else to make.”

A typical day for Ellingson starts at 7:45 in the morning. “I get my kitchen set up, do all my food prep, cook, serve, clean, and then get set up for the next day. Once a week I do all the food orders.” Ellingson said.

“I would say I love being here because it’s a community feel, just being with the coworkers and I love serving the kids; it’s just a really great place to be,” said Ellingson, but as much as the job has to offer, like any other it has its downsides as well. While the negative associations and stereotypes of a “lunch lady” don’t bother Ellingson, Bersamina and Westmoreland do find them a bit concerning.

“As soon as I tell everybody, they’re like, ‘you know you have to wear a hairnet?’ and I have to be like ‘no’. We keep our hair back and make sure to keep our hair out of the food. They’re like ‘you guys serve crappy food?’ but we don’t, you guys get such good food,” said Bersamina.

Despite the bad reputation, Bersamina and Westmoreland can agree that the cafeteria wasn’t always ideal when they were in high school. “The food was terrible. You didn’t have many choices, you literally went through the line and you got what was there,” said Westmoreland.

 “We never got snacks like you guys have, or anything. And I’m from San Francisco so where I went to school we had like a snack bar, and there was like this special recipe that the ladies in there made, and it was like this big fat cookie, and everyone that I talked to wanted to know how to make them, they were with peanut butter. Those were the best cookies in the world, that’s what I remember,” said Bersamina.

And thankfully, students at CHS definitely show appreciation for their privileged and varied lunch options.

“I was just saying, I am just going to put up a sign that says, ‘You’re Welcome!’ because I have to say it all the time. ” Bersamina joked.

“I think for me honestly just seeing how many students when they come up they make eye contact, I think it goes back to the gratitude of when they say ‘have a nice day’ they say that all the time,” said Bersamina.

“It’s a good feeling,” said Westmoreland.

According to the Lunch Ladies, serving school lunch has changed drastically, but they still love their jobs and the students and get reciprocated appreciation. Through the ups and downs Bersamina, Westmoreland, and Ellingson can all agree that the CHS cafeteria is the place to be.