Diana Shaver has been working at Clinton High School as the cafeteria manager for 26 years, her job is menu planning. She makes sure that the kids get the required and nutritious balanced meals they need. She also deals with all of the food components and tray items while managing over all of the kitchen. To prepare for so many kids she needs to know accurate information such as knowing how many kids are going to eat so she can make sure to order enough of each item. There are conflicts with groups of students not showing up, if she knows there won’t be as many students she can cut back and save food. A big part in preparing food is timing and temperature. She has to make sure she makes the food in the exact right time for all the kids.  

She also has to make sure that everyone cleans, washes, and counts. There is a lot of prepwork to get it done. She noted that there is a lot of teamwork that goes into the work. The regulations she has to follow are state and federal. She has to follow rules from the child nutrition food service. She is trying to keep the meals at no charge which is a very nice privilege here at CHS. The meals can be pretty lengthy when being prepared. The turkey the students had for Thanksgiving took 5 days to prepare. Some meals though just come out of the freezer and are made pretty quickly.

When asked if she was given the option to change the way things were made would she and what she would change she said, “ Yes, I would like to add more flavor and spices. I would like to go back to white bread, like what we used to have.” She went on to say that some common misconceptions about the food is that people think that USDA food is low grade. She says that is not true, that it is actually high grade and good quality. She also went on to explain how people think that there is not enough food but there are a lot of extra sides offered to everyone.

When bringing up about the topic of the raw chicken that was on the news about CHS lunches she said, “Some foods will naturally be a different color when they get heated up. It may not look the way some people think it should but it is cooked the right way.” She also went on to say how when the picture was taken of the chicken it looked raw in the photo because it enhanced the natural pink of the meat.

Diana Shaver started working in food service because of her kids, she wanted to be with them. She wanted to watch them grow up. She loves talking to students, and it makes her feel like they care. She elaborated saying, “I love being here for the kids, I love to cook for them. I love seeing their smiling faces, that makes me feel good!”Diana Shaver and her co workers are a big help at CHS, and the students are very thankful for all the hard work they do.