Tales from the Huffmans

                                                               by Kimberley Huffman

My name is Kimberley Huffman. I am the only daughter of Don and Maxine Huffman. I have studied many things, including cooking.

 

My current job is as Kitchen Manager¹ at our local public intermediate school². The school is US grades 4, 5 and 6. The students range in age from 9 to 12. My job is to oversee³ the production of school lunch for over 1000 students in our town.

 

The National School Lunch program⁴ began in 1946, though students at many schools were already being served lunch by then. School Lunch is a federal program and much of the food and financial assistance comes from the government.

 

The government makes guidelines⁵ and standards⁶ for schools who serve lunch to their students. Many of these guidelines regard portion size⁷ and items that are served. The standards include the principle that students should be given healthy choices⁸ along with well balanced meals⁹. Schools must serve protein¹⁰, starch¹¹ and fruits / vegetables and offer milk to students.

 

Students must pay for lunch each day, but if they are unable to, there is a national program that enables students to have lunch for free or a reduced price, depending upon their household income¹².

 

A typical menu for my school would be:

 

Hamburger on a bun¹³

Mashed Potatoes¹⁴

Peas

Oranges

Cake

Milk

 

There are enough options¹⁴ served that even if students don’t eat everything, they are given the opportunity¹⁵ to eat a well-balanced meal. Bread, cake and desserts are baked at our school; however, most schools choose to buy these items for students.

 

Students at my school eat in a cafeteria¹⁶, separate from all of the classrooms. It is considered very unsanitary¹⁷ to eat in the classroom and most schools have a separate cafeteria. Many schools have a gymnasium¹⁸ that converts¹⁹ into a cafeteria for lunch and back to a gymnasium during physical education or assemblies²⁰. In our school the cafeteria remains separate, thus more sanitary²¹.  We do our best to keep it that way. 

 

 

Notes:

 

1. kitchen manager: the official title of Kim’s position, in which she supervises about 8 cooks who prepare the lunch for about 800 to 1,000  or more elementary school students in Pella, Iowa City Schools （厨房管理员).

2. intermediate school: a school which consists of class grades 4, 5 and 6 (含有四、五、六年级的学校).  The name of the school is Jefferson Intermediate School.

3. oversee: be in charge of a group of workers and check that a piece of work is done satisfactorily (监督，管理).

4. The National School Lunch Program: a federally funded program which provides some items of food as part of lunches that are served in public schools in the U.S. (国家的学校午餐计划，为美国公立学校提供的由联邦政府资助部分午餐).

5. guidelines: suggestions or rules which indicate how the school lunch program should be carried out (指导原则).

6. standards: the specific criteria for cleanliness, portion size, cost, caloric content, etc. (专门的标准，如卫生要求，每份午餐的量，成本，热量要求等).

7. portion size: the amount of a food item that is served to an individual student (每份午餐的量).

8. healthy choices: 供选择的健康食品

9. well balanced meals: lunches which meet all nutritional requirements as set by the U.

S. government (营养合理的饭菜，即完全符合美国政府规定的营养要求).

10. protein：蛋白质

11. starch：淀粉

12. household income: the  amount of money which a single household or family earns (家庭收入).  Level of household income is used to determine pricing of lunches, and permits reduced prices to low level income families.

13. hamburger on a bun: a sandwich consisting of a beef patty between two halves of a bread bun, with choice of seasonings and vegetables, i.e. mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc. (一种汉堡，把圆面包切成两半，当中夹上牛肉饼，并加上调料和蔬菜，如芥末，番茄酱，生菜，番茄，洋葱等).

14. Mashed Potatoes: 土豆泥

15. options: choices of foods within a food type (一类食物中可供任选其一的几种食品).

16. opportunity: 机会

17. cafeteria: the food serving and eating area of a school (学校的自助食堂).

18. unsanitary: not clean, contaminated with potentially harmful bacteria, viruses, etc. (不卫生).

19. gymnasium:体育馆

20. converts: changes from one thing to another (改变).

21. assemblies: times when the entire school meets together (全校集会).

22. sanitary: clean, or free from harmful germs (干净，卫生).

 

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 1:43 pm and is filed under Jobs, Professions and Hobbies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.