S02 E07 — The People Cooking Your Kids’ Lunch

Episode Description

Most conversations about school meals focus on the food itself: what’s on the tray, where it comes from, whether kids are eating it. But every one of those meals is made possible by people, many of whom arrive as early as 5 a.m. and are among the only staff who see nearly every student every single day.

In this episode of Cafeteria Confessions, we shift the focus to the people cooking your kids’ lunch. We sit down with Cathy Carmicheal, a research dietitian at the LSU Pennington Biomedical Research Center who leads Louisiana’s Team Nutrition, a USDA-funded initiative that gives schools resources and training to promote healthy eating and physical activity. Cathy shares what her research reveals about the school nutrition workforce: a group that is nearly 90% women, often over 55, on their feet for six-plus hours a day, and juggling second jobs. We dig into the daily realities of understaffed kitchens, the push to elevate job titles from “lunch lady” to “school nutrition professional,” the wage gap that makes it hard to retain staff, and the creative training and morale-building programs, like the Tray of the Week campaign, that are helping reshape how these teams are seen and supported. This is a conversation about the people who show up before sunrise, know every kid’s name, and keep the whole system running.

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About the Guest

Cathy Carmichael is a research dietitian at the LSU Pennington Biomedical Research Center, where she has worked since 2014. In 2015, Pennington partnered with the Louisiana Department of Education’s Division of Nutrition Support to create the Louisiana Fit Kids Program, a resource for training and supporting school nutrition professionals across the state. Cathy leads Louisiana’s Team Nutrition, a USDA-funded initiative supporting healthier schools, and has spent nearly a decade studying the health, wellness, and workforce needs of school nutrition professionals through statewide surveys, focus groups, and hands-on culinary trainings like the Team Nutrition Leadership Institute. She also created the Tray of the Week campaign, celebrating schools that showcase appealing, federally compliant meals, and manages the Louisiana Fit Kids social media platforms connecting school nutrition professionals across the state.