The Archie Williams cafeteria, the Canteen, produces over 14,000 meals a month, serving free breakfast and lunch for the entire student population. Every day at 11:40 a.m., students file into the Canteen to collect free lunch and breakfast, choosing from a rotating selection of items that provide healthy and balanced meals.
During the 2022-23 school year, California enacted the Universal Meals Program, requiring students to have access to two free meals at school. According to Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) Student Nutrition Services Director Ben Guyton, since the law’s passing, the number of students relying on the cafeteria has grown, increasing the amount of food that the cafeteria needs to prepare daily.
“The Universal Meals Program that California funds, which offers free breakfast and free lunch to all students, has increased participation at all of our schools. Currently, about one in five students district-wide gets a free breakfast on campus, and about one in four students get a lunch on campus, district-wide,” Guyton said.
The Archie Williams cafeteria staff clock in at 5:30 a.m. to begin their daily routine. They start by turning on all of the kitchen appliances to begin working on that morning’s breakfast, usually consisting of a hot breakfast option, cereal, muffins, a parfait with fruit, and juice. In total, the cafeteria produces around 400 breakfasts a day, including prepackaged items, preparing 100 of those options fresh every morning.
Victoria Soriano is the main cook in the Archie Williams Canteen. She highlights the preparations in the kitchen that ensure that the transition to lunch is smooth and on time.
“We start to [make] breakfast and prepare all the meat [for lunch]. [To make] lunch, we have to [start] after nine to get everything ready [on time],” Soriano said. “After breakfast, we have to put everything away [to make room] for lunch and salad.”
By the time lunch rolls around at 11:40 a.m., the staff in the cafeteria have worked hard assembling that day’s meals. From soups to sandwiches to meatloaf, the cooks choose meals that are easy and efficient to make in bulk.
“[The] rice bowl, it’s faster, so we can make 200 easier and quicker… The chow mein takes more time, because we prepare the veggies, the meat, the noodles. Put all together it takes more time, so we make less of those,” Vargas said.
Along with time management of the cooking materials, certain nutrition requirements must be considered when creating the lunches for that scheduled menu. Archie Williams, along with all the other schools in the TUHSD district, follows the requirements listed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
According to USDA requirements, students must select “three with a green,” meaning three components for their meal, including a “green” item, ensuring it contains whole grains and protein. To complete the meal, students also must choose milk and either a fruit or a vegetable. Getting three with a green ensures that students will receive the proper nutrition requirements needed to be successful throughout the day
“In crafting recipes and the menu there’s a lot of number crunching, and it’s more detailed than students really care to dive into most of the time… The question is, well, what do I have to get in order to get a free meal? I’m trying to boil that down into a simple slogan, ‘get three with a green,’” Guyton said.
The COVID-19 pandemic heavily influenced the growing number of students utilizing and relying on the cafeteria. Before the pandemic, only about 100 students ate at the Canteen daily, but in 2020 that number rose to around 1000 students, resulting in an increased production of meals with almost 400 made per day.
Archie Williams cafeteria Food Services Manager Carmen Vargas has worked in the cafeteria for seven years, and during the pandemic, she witnessed a large spike in the number of students utilizing the cafeteria’s services.
“When I started working here before the pandemic, there were like 100-120 kids. Now, we have almost 400… I would have to say in 2020, we made almost 1,000 lunches,” Vargas said.
Archie Williams freshman Braden Podboy feels that the Canteen is a good option to get fresh food without having to spend money or go off campus. He also uses the Canteen to grab a quick breakfast in between classes.
“[I] probably [would] not [get lunch at the Canteen if I had to pay], because it’s kind of like going to get lunch off campus if I was paying for it. I might go somewhere off campus, but making [the food] free is a benefit,” Braden said.
Providing students with nutritious breakfasts and lunches every day and a menu rotating weekly, the Canteen is a major part of the Archie Williams community. While the Canteen continues to inspire new meals, one thing is certain: students will not go hungry.
