Grilling, cooking, baking- the job of a lunch worker can get repetitive and hard, but lunch worker Sonja Nelson makes it look easy. A fast-paced, organized job is exactly what a quick pick-me-up is for Nelson. 

Lunch workers are the backbone of school lunch, and Nelson is no different. “It’s like a well-oiled machine,” Nelson said. Nelson has been working at Shorewood for a year, and has been working as a lunch worker for a year and a half. You have to want to do it, as a key draw for Nelson to food services is the service aspect. “I just always love being of service to people,” Nelson said. “I want you to get your food as fast as possible, it brings me joy.” 

The service and team parts of it is what makes it work. “Our tasks contribute to a whole,” Nelson said. “If you can’t get something done, someone else will swoop in and assist you.” Each person works as a jigsaw piece to a larger puzzle of feeding a good percentage of the student population. “Tasks are down to the minute,” she adds.

The point of the job for Nelson is to serve, and to have a time every day that gets the blood flowing. With a “if you can do it, do it” mentality, and with a long-time job at home, the inclusion of an activity that helps others breaks up the monotony of the work day nicely. Nelson’s job at home, like most people these days, involves a lot of sitting around and not doing anything. Being a lunch worker allows her to move and talk with a lot of people.

Family is an underrated reason for what job you choose, and Nelson is not an exception. “Growing up my mother was a kitchen lead, I grew up around the food service industry,” Nelson said, “I’m drawn to the kitchen, they’re my people.”

“There are so many things we’d like to tell our students,” Nelson said. The issue of the lunch line areas becoming dirtier and dirtier day after day is a pressing issue. “Don’t squish the fruit or poke holes in the apples with forks in my line,” Nelson said. “Be respectful, please.”

Of the two different times that the food service workers work, nutritional break is easily the most dense. “We serve close to 240-250 kids in 15 minutes with the 3 of us,” Nelson said. “It’s good for your brain to be out there doing stuff.” In such a short period of time, Nelson makes every moment count. “No time for error or showing up tired,” said Nelson.

Nelson’s experience with food work has a motto that she follows: “Show up, be of service, and be kind.”