Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 1, 1966.
Need Four Lunch Periods
By JOYCE CRIZER
PORTAGE ー Remodeling at Portage high school has changed the lunch program considerably for both students and teachers.
Presently all cooking is being done in the junior high building, as there are no kitchen facilities in the high school.
Four lunch periods are needed, starting at 10:25, to serve hot lunch to between 850 and 950 persons. There is seating capacity for only 200 in the existing all-purpose room.
In addition to the multi-purpose room, a new dining area, seating 550, is being constructed. The room, along with a teachers’ lounge with serving equipment, are expected to be completed before the end of this school year.
The new cafeteria will eserve 1,500. Plans call for four student serving lines as well as teacher’s serving lines.
School Dietitian Mary Ellen Ault and the school administration felt that a lunch program even with extremely crowded conditions and no kitchen facilities was worth the extra planning rather than having no hot lunches for high school students.
Five thousand paper plates and plastic forks are ordered each week, adding about 2½ cents to the cost of lunches, Miss Ault said.
About 500 half-pint cartons of milk are sold in the concession stand daily to those who do not buy hot lunches, and therefore eat on the gym balcony bleachers.
Menus are the same as all other township schools, Miss Ault explained, unless a main dish which cannot be served on a paper tray is to be offered; then sandwiches are usually on the high school menu.
“The cooks who are working under a handicap have been good spots,” stated Miss Ault. Mrs. Lucille Kraft works in the high school all day, while Mrs. Annabelle Thomae supervises high school cooking being done in the junior high.
Other cooks spending parts of their mornings at both schools are Mmes. Ruth Peek, Bonnie Ransay, Virginia Vail, Nora McMillan and Evelyn Skinner.
TRANSPORT STUDENT LUNCHESーHot lunches at Portage high school are transported from junior high cafeteria daily, since the high school cafeteria is being completely remodeled. ‘Uncle’ Roy Dahlin, member of janitorial staff, assists Mrs. Lucille Kraft, head cook, in bringing containers of tightly covered food for one of three lunch periods.
(PHS News Bureau Photo)