Working: lunch ladies

By JASMINE OKBINOGLU
UNLEASHED STAFF
A bell rings, shattering the calm.
The thunder of footsteps crashes against the cafeteria floor, and students pour into six lines to get lunch.
This is what the Eisenhower High School cafeteria is like during lunchtime.

Nine people deal with this onslaught of students, five days a week for nine months. They also have to cook for two other schools, Nob Hill Elementary and Discovery Lab. But that’s not a problem for the cafeteria workers.
Ike’s lunch ladies are pros when it comes to working under pressure.
“We’ve done it so many times it’s not really stressful anymore,” says 46-year-old Candace Deccio, the cafeteria manager and a baker at Ike.
Co-worker Lori Sutton, 34, an assistant cook, nods in agreement. So does 59-year-old Fey Maybee, the main dish cook.
“It’s very hectic, but somehow it all comes together,” Maybee says. “We all work together to get it done.”
Deccio and her co-workers serve from 700 to 800 Ike students at lunch and about 200 students at breakfast.
While most students are nice and polite, a few have been rude to the lunch ladies.
“I always make a point to remember who is nice and who is not,” Deccio says.
But, Maybee says, there isn’t much time to chit-chat: “Things are going so fast that you can’t really talk with them.”
Students aren’t the only people the cafeteria crew sees. Teachers go in and out of the kitchen to fill their cups with coffee and occasionally get breakfast or lunch. Members of the maintenance staff also visit the kitchen, sometimes engaging the lunch ladies in friendly verbal sparring matches that keep the scene lively and entertaining.
“It’s fun; we all get along,” says Sutton.
“It’s a hoot,” Deccio adds with a smile.
There’s a general stereotype that school cafeteria food is less than appetizing. This is exemplified by “Lunch Lady Land.” In the Adam Sandler song, the food is described as old, gross and mysterious.

“ … Served some reheated salisbury steak
With a little slice of love
Got no clue what the chicken pot pie is made of … ”

This is not the case at Ike.
“We make a lot of the main dishes we serve,” Maybee says. “All the soups, fajitas, spaghetti, lasagna and turkey gravy are made from scratch. Even if we don’t make the food, like the pizzas and burritos, we still know what’s in it.”
Seventeen-year-old senior Lindsey Sires eats in the Ike cafeteria on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when she has club meetings and doesn’t have time to go off campus. She’s not a big fan of the pizza.
“I do like the cheese zombies, though,” she says. “Most of the food is not bad.”
Ike’s lunch ladies are often not given the credit they deserve for all of the work they do on a daily basis. From 5:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday, they are baking, chopping, prepping, serving and cleaning.
Pay is about $17,000 a year.
“It’s a lot to do,” Sires says. “Sometimes, I think they do more than some teachers.”

• Jasmine Okbinoglu is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Eisenhower High School.

Janey Smith, one of the cooks at Eisenhower High School, prepares tater tots with the assistance of Don Deccio, a substitute cook.

Wanted: Style Agents for Wild Lucy’s

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF
“Who knows more about fashion and what girls are wearing right now than girls?” asks Dawn Garland, the owner of Wild Lucy’s.
The answer, of course, is no one. And Garland has found a way to use that fact to her advantage.
This month, Wild Lucy’s is beginning its search for “style agents,” or high school and college-age girls and fashion-forward boys who will assist the Yakima boutique in the stocking and representation of the store.

Garland, 39, is hoping to select two agents from each high school in the Yakima Valley by the end of the month. Each agent will be required to hold the position for a year, and there is also the chance to be hired on as Wild Lucy’s paid staff at the end of the term.
“Before each season, the agents will come in, sit with us, have popcorn, and look over the items we have picked out for the store,” Garland says.
The agents will essentially be professional opinion-givers. They’ll say what they like and what they don’t like, and even add their own ideas to the mix.
“We want forward-thinking girls with a sense of business and communication who are going to bring something to the table,” Garland says.
Tara Trudeau, the store manager, added that the agents should be a bit aggressive and willing to put their ideas out there instead of just sitting back quietly.
Starting a style agent program is an idea that Garland and Trudeau have tossed around for a while.
And the opportunity sounds fun to Salam Awad, an 18-year-old senior at Eisenhower High School.
“I think this is a great idea for Yakima, and a lot of people will be interested in it,” she says. “If you really look around, teens here have many different styles. The more and more people that put their heads together to share their fashion ideas, the better the store will become because they could provide merchandise that fits everyone’s taste.”
Bettering the store and upping sales are possible perks of the program. But Wild Lucy has other goals for 2009, too.
“As of Feb. 1, Wild Lucy’s will be in its third year. We’ve spent that time getting up and running, and now that we’re pretty stable in the community, we can focus on our original purpose: to be a store with a cause,” Garland says.
That cause is Women for Women International, a nonprofit that — according to its Web site — offers women survivors of war and other conflicts the tools and resources to progress from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency.
Ten percent of all profits at Wild Lucy’s will go to the organization to aid women in war-torn countries.
While promoting Wild Lucy’s is their first priority, it will also be important for style agents to be aware of this cause. They will be representing the store at community events.
“The girls will wear our shirts and help to represent us at these events,” Garland says. “It will be an opportunity for them to have community experience, and to get an idea of what retail is.”
Being a style agent, Awad says, “would be a good preview into the fashion industry. It would also help you to work with other people, and teach you to incorporate their ideas into your own.”
Lindsey Sires, a 17-year-old Eisenower senior, says the program will help teens help the community through something they are passionate about: fashion.
“This is a good opportunity even if you are not necessarily in going into the fashion industry since it gets you out into the community,” she says.
“It will also help teens to build some business skills,” says Jacquelyn Radford, a 15-year-old ninth-grader at West Valley Junior High. “It would be nice to see more trendy stores like Wild Lucy’s in Yakima. A lot of people like that kind of fashion.”
Another learning experience will come from helping build clientele. According to Garland, style agents will all have business cards to hand out to peers. After a certain amount of Wild Lucy’s shoppers show an agent’s card he or she will receive a 10 percent discount. After another amount, agents will earn a 15 percent discount, and so on, up to a 25 percent discount.
“The harder they work, the more benefits they’ll get,” Garland says.
Another benefit of being a style agent is getting a sneak preview of merchandise that comes into the store. Wild Lucy’s only orders three to six of any one item at a time, and the agents will have the opportunity to buy that new merchandise before the rest of the community sees it.

Wild Lucy’s
Where: 418 B. South 48th Ave.
Applications: Available on Wild Lucy’s MySpace and Facebook.
Call: 509-965-LUCY

— Alyssa Patrick is the student editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Eisenhower High School.