By Ariel Hessler, Special to the Plaindealer

Denean Colby arrives for work at Ridgway Secondary School at 6 in the morning, long before other staff members begin to trickle in. She makes the bread first. While it is baking, she prepares the main meal.

It’s by no means an easy job, especially with entirely homemade meals.

“It’s very physical,” Colby said. “I’m lifting 50-pound bags of flour, stirring big pots.”

The district’s food services manager’s credentials could easily elevate her to a job with more prestige. Colby is a veteran chef who trained in Italy and France.

She ran her own restaurant for several years, teaches cooking classes regularly, and worked at the local Mountain Market as the food manager.

“I thought I was up for the challenge,” she said.

Yet the job is not exactly a novelty for her. She worked at Ridgway Secondary School in its early days, from 2006 to 2010.

Why does she work in the cafeteria? “You know what? I just enjoy it. I like to cook. I like the kids,” she said. “It’s a good beat on the community.”

Whatever her reasons, it’s undeniable that she is back and better than ever.

Students agree the food has more than met expectations.

“It’s way better than what we had last year,” said sophomore Orion Krois. “I tried it at first because it smelled good and just kept going … It’s much more quality and it feels like there’s more ingredients in the meals.”

Krois said he ate lunch about once a week last year. Now, he’s up to four times a week. Sign-up numbers for lunch have increased to an average of 120 a day at both the secondary and elementary schools, compared to a previous average of 95.

The school cafeteria also has a brandnew salad bar that incorporates locally sourced ingredients such as bell peppers and cherry tomatoes, where students can serve themselves. Colby also instituted a well-stocked coffee bar.

The difference is especially radical when one considers the struggles food service has had at the school. During the pandemic, staffers left, leaving the school district unable to supply healthy side dishes or even provide lunch for elementary schoolers.

“It all just avalanched,” secondary school Principal Russell Randolph said. “Last year was the first year we provided free lunch, too, so there were a high number of kids looking for food.”

Understaffing also became especially bad last year, when the already barebones staff was reduced to only two workers.

“We were just unable to keep a full staff,” Ridgway School District Superintendent Susan Lacy said. “And when our supplier, U.S. Foods, went on strike, we were really trying to simplify. So that meant (serving) Uncrustables, things out of a can, frozen chicken nuggets.”

With such a big improvement, many assume the district’s food budget has expanded significantly. In reality, the finances haven’t shifted much. The secondary school budgeted $188,000 for the lunch program this school year, compared to $178,000 last year. Much of the funding comes from U.S. Department of Agriculture Free and Reduced Lunch money, as well as the state program Healthy Food For All. Most of the difference is going toward additional staff, which is up from two to three and a half members. The district is looking to hire another staff member to help in the kitchen.

“We’re really just hoping the funding is enough,” Randolph said. “What I would like to see is actually an increase in our numbers, because it doesn’t cost much more to feed 50 more kids when you’re already supplying lunch for more than 200, but we will receive more funding.”

So how does Colby balance her limited budget with innovative, homemade meals? She started by introducing new and inventive dishes.

“I kind of collect recipe books, and I just sit down with them every so often and decide what looks good,” she said.

The current school lunch menu includes everything from orange chicken and runzas to beef bourguignon and lentil salad.

Colby has also gone out of her way to arrange discounts with local food suppliers and maximize ingredients, often incorporating leftovers into the next day’s meal. One of her additions to the lunch room is a well-stocked fruit bowl, which could pose a few difficulties since teenagers are not well-known for enjoying their produce, and fruit goes bad quickly. But Colby has managed to resolve this.

“When the bananas start to turn a little brown, we’ll make banana bread out of them or chop them up and turn them into pudding,” she said. “I don’t know if I want to tell all my secrets, but that’s one way we make sure we aren’t wasting food.”

Her innovations have made kitchen operations much more streamlined. Still, though, the job is undeniably challenging. In her words, “It’s difficult but very rewarding.”

Feeding students is an essential job, according to Randolph.

“Sometimes we realize that this is the best meal that some kids have every day,” said Randolph. “So it’s important that we can provide a good, filling, nutritious meal for them.”

Ariel Hessler is a student at Ridgway Secondary School and a contributor to the school’s student publication, The RSS Pitchfork.