Text and Photos
By Shari Benyousky
Guest Columnist

Column Note: In the 69th column in the Diners and Dives series, some Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club members explore food at Warsaw Community High School.

“With this job, you never get bored!” Food Service Director Stacie Light greeted us at the Main Office at the Warsaw Community High School. Stacie had arranged for Diners and Dives to taste the food, particularly the legendary Smart Mouth Pizza offered daily at the High School. We showed our IDs to get guest approval before being swept up in the maze of students and hallways.

The Warsaw Community High School feels like a small city when you’re inside during a school day. With around 2,200 students, it must operate efficiently. “Warsaw Community Schools is actually the third largest employer in the county,” Director of Communications and Strategic Partnerships Krista Polston explained as we got in line with the Third Lunch crowd shortly after noon.

On any given day 900-1000 high school students choose to purchase a main entrée, a salad bar, or a Smart Mouth Pizza with sides. We brought a few Smart Mouth Optimist Regulars to give it a try.

There were other options too. Some students bring their own lunches, so the school provides microwaves for them.

There’s also a vegetarian option usually including yogurt. A student pays only $3 for lunch. Adults like us pay $4.50 plus extras. “We keep the price right,” Stacie Light nodded at our gasps of delight.

The Rest Of The Cast Of Characters

WCHS Principal Troy Akers welcomed us while keeping an eye on his walkie-talkie. “I’m still working on hiring a few key people today, so I can’t join you for lunch,” he told us between talking to students. “It’s tough to hire science and math people these days. We also need people in our special needs area to support our outstanding teachers.”

Principal Akers is in his 29th year. He gave cafeteria manager Brenda a side hug. “Brenda has been with me the whole time I’ve been here,” he said with appreciation.

How To Get A Free Pizza For Lunch Every Day

“I still need a few workers too,” Brenda told us. Workers also get a free lunch every day. That means you too could get pizza every single day if you wanted.

Ben Barkey, the principal of the Warsaw Area Career Center (the north part of the building) had lunch duty on this particular Friday. “I asked them to make my favorite pizza, the Hot Wings Flavor,” he grinned. “I also love hot dog entrees. Anyone who knows me from my days at Madison Elementary knows that hot dogs and dried apricots were always the happiest days.”

The pizzas come in regular flavors like cheese, pepperoni, or sausage, but students also find rotating interesting flavors like Hawaiian, hot wings, chicken BBQ ranch, and Texas. “That one comes with jalapenos,” Brenda frowned. “I thought it would be more popular than it was.”

Lunch Dreams Do Come True

Cafeteria Manager Brenda Martinez, who has worked at the high school for 30 years, always arrives at the high school at 6 a.m. to get breakfast ready for the 7:25 a.m .start time and begin the pizza process.

Each day the pizzas are handmade from the dough to the sauce, to the toppings, to the cheese. She gestured around at her team of 19 working at the cafeteria. “We have a lot of good teamwork to make this happen every day,” she said proudly. The team creates 450-500 fresh pizzas daily. Leftover pizzas can be purchased by students for breakfast the next day. “They love it!” Brenda smiled.

Students can purchase pizzas a la carte, but the school encourages them to add fresh veggies and fruits by making it cheaper to purchase a meal than alone. Fruit and veggie options the day we visited were cut up carrots or celery, fresh strawberries, dried cherries, or a little container of something orange. “Is the orange stuff apricot sauce?” Realtor Jeff Owens asked.

Brenda explained that sometimes they mix applesauce with various colors of Jello to change things up. Today the containers of applesauce were orange to celebrate an evening Tigers football game. “Why not add some black, maybe black licorice, too?” Jeff inquired to multiple grimaces around the table.

Diners And Dives Starts A Food Fight

1st Source Banker Paul Finley, who probably contemplated this move all week, decided to liven lunch up. He tossed a dried cherry with a direct hit on my forehead. “Food Fight!” called out Jeff Owens. There was a bit of a pause and some side glances from the students at the surrounding tables. They noticed Ben Barkey with us. “It’s a joke,” laughed Krista Polston.

Ben bit his hot dog and told us his crowd-control secret. “So, let’s say I’m walking through the lunchroom, and I get hit by a dried cherry in the back of the head. I look down at my watch and note that it’s 11:55. I don’t turn around or even flinch. I just keep walking. Later I pull up the camera footage and find the student. It’s easy. Takes me like 5 minutes.”

“So, do you use that as leverage, if you find out that the person who tossed the cherry is a teacher or a guest?” joked Jeff Owens with a look at Paul. Ben Barkey held up a finger and walked to a podium in the middle of the cafeteria.

Ben picked up a microphone and announced the name of a student needed in the office. He also called out, “I also need to see Jeff Owens. Will Jeff Owens please come here immediately.” Students and staff chuckled as Jeff nodded his apology to Ben’s food fight lecture.

The Tour

After we ate pizza and strawberries and orange applesauce to bursting, the few of us who hadn’t returned to work, got a behind-the-scenes tour. Feeding 1,000 people a day is not for the faint-of-heart.

Kristie showed us to the prep-kitchen where Leslie was chopping carrots and celery. We saw the dough proofer where the pizza dough rises. Remember that’s 450-500 balls of dough every day. We met Elaine Tuttle scrubbing in the back. “It’s only my third day,” she said nervously but gave us a huge smile too.

Brenda showed us the enormous walk-in freezer and refrigerator. She threatened to lock Jeff Owens in briefly if he didn’t behave. The high school is also the home of the inventory for all the food services for every school. Twice a week they receive deliveries of 1,000-3,000 pounds of food.

Stacie Light grinned at Brenda. “I just hired a warehouse coordinator, we have so much to do. Brenda doesn’t much like it when she must do inventory.”

Brenda grimaced. “But I always do it with a smile!”

We finished with a look at the dishwasher that takes up nearly a full room. “Want to learn how?” Stacie asked.

“Ooh,” groaned Krista Polston. “I do enough dishes at home. I’m out.”

We returned our official lanyards, paid our bills, put away our trash, and also got out. Thank you, Warsaw Community High School, for feeding us amazing pizza and hosting Diners and Dives. We had a wonderful time and came away with a greater understanding of the logistics of feeding and educating our kids and keeping them safe.

Cheers to the staff at the Tiger Pride Cafe!

Do you know of an interesting place, restaurant, nonprofit, or person that you’d like to see featured in Diners and Dives? Send Shari Benyousky an email at [email protected].