Goodbye Gonzalez, Greetings Glenda
Any facility only functions due to the efforts of its hard working staff. Here at CVHS, our cafeteria staff is always busy at work preparing your next muffin, cheeseburger, or burrito. Greeting thousands of students with smiles every day, these lunch ladies never fail to impress.
Our beloved cafeteria lead Raquel Gonzalez departed CVHS’ team in March to begin her new position in the district as the cafeteria coordinator. Replacing Gonzalez shortly, will be new cafeteria lead Glenda Pirir. We appreciate Gonzalez’s time here and would love to share her valuable experience to give us an inside peek into what goes on in the kitchen.
This school year, each student in the CVUSD is eligible to receive a free snack and lunch every day, no questions asked. However, the increased number of students waiting in the lunch line has brought a few challenges to the cafeteria staff this year. Gonzalez shared, “Our new average is 750 breakfasts and 1,100 lunches. I’m glad more students are eating and it isn’t a burden on anyone with it being free. With more students eating, our lines are longer and unfortunately [bring] staffing issues.”
Along with free food for the students, Covid-19 has made some other changes around the cafeteria. Many juniors and seniors are curious about the disappearance of the slushies that were once sold at 300 hall snack bar.
“The snack bar is closed due to construction in the 300 hall. As for slushies, with Covid we are unable to sell them but now that restrictions are changing, hopefully we will have them back next school year or when the 300 hall is done,” Gonzalez informed.
For other discontinued items such as cinnamon rolls, Gonzalez stated, “Most items need to be wrapped due to Covid protocols, so things can get very messy trying to put a fresh cinnamon roll in a paper bag. My hope is next year we will be able to bring those items back.”
Gonzalez shared that one of her personal favorite items from previous years was “the chicken wings or the fried chicken with mashed potatoes.” Some other staff favorites include the muffins, pesto chicken, empanadas, salads, and chicken teriyaki over rice.
New cafeteria lead Pirir has had a great experience so far at CVHS. “I enjoy the people, the fast paced environment, and seeing students happy with the food.” She adds that, “Hopefully we will be getting the 300 hall snack bar back up and running by the start of next school year!”
So, the next time you punch in your five-digit ID number to receive a slice of pizza, don’t forget to appreciate these privileges provided to us. We wish Gonzalez good luck as she moves to her new position in the district and welcome Pirir to our school community!
Thank you for highlighting the hard work of our cafeteria staff who do so much without recognition. They keep students energized throughout the day with the food options behind the scenes. They are so important to our school community and I am very grateful to them.
Thank you Gonzalez for serving us food and with a smile every day. The lines are huge at CVHS to get food and sometimes I just don’t want to wait to get food. Welcome to CVHS Glenda and thanks for letting us know when items like the cinnamon bun and snack bar is going to come back and good luck Gonzalez on your new position in the district.
Gonzalez was a great member of the staff here at CVHS. I remember in my freshman year on campus, she could recognize and remember my name after getting breakfast after only a couple of days! You will be missed Gonzalez!
In a bustling and energetic environment like a high school campus kids often tend to not notice those working behind the scenes to help run the school. I do want to acknowledge those that do notice and make it appoint to say hi and converse with those staff. I am a bit shy myself but whenever I get something in the morning before school or at break or lunch that I say “Hi!” or “Good Morning!” to whoever is serving me because they deserve that. As well as wishing them a good day. I am glad to welcome the new cafeteria lead and wish luck to Ms. Gonzalez. Also as one who was wondering about the slushies it is good to get some updates.
I am so sad to see our hard working lunch lady Ms. Gonzalez leave CVHS. I have lots of memories with Ms. Gonzalez as my lunch lady. Good luck to her future career and a warm welcome to our new cafeteria lead, Glenda.