On Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019, food service director Sharon Schaefer hosted a training that provided high school students with the opportunity to learn more about production cooking. In this training, students prepared turkeys that were then served at GPS middle and elementary schools on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019. This training was held from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Gretna Middle School, Gretna Elementary School and Whitetail Creek Elementary School.
“Over the weekend, we prepared the turkeys for two elementary schools and one middle school,” Schaefer said. “Since the schools we prepared turkeys for are so understaffed, our help was mandatory. I offered help to all kitchen managers, but these schools were the only ones that requested help.”
The Thanksgiving meal at the elementary schools and middle schools consisted of a turkey bowl and a slice of pumpkin cheesecake pie. And when it comes to the high school, GHS was supposed to use all of the leftover turkeys from the elementary and middle schools for their Thanksgiving meal, but the meal ended up getting canceled.
“Even though the dessert is called pumpkin cheesecake pie, the crust isn’t an actual pie crust; it is a graham cracker crust,” Schaefer said. “We made it in a giant sheet pan and then chilled it for two hours.”

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Kalei Renner

Step One: Before the turkeys can be cooked, they have to be taken out of the freezer and thawed. In total, 64 turkeys were cooked throughout the district for the Thanksgiving meal.

Since the turkeys were already in the oven prior to the student volunteers arrival, all they had to do was check the temperature of the turkeys and shred them. In total, the students shredded 28 turkeys at the training.
“In a turkey, there are certain fatty parts where you must stick the thermometer in,” Schafer said. “The temperature in which a turkey is considered edible and safe to serve is at 165° F, and this measurement must be exact all the way around the turkey.”

Since only two students attended the training, Mrs. Schaefer hopes to up this number and recruit more student volunteers as the school year progresses. The next available opportunity where students will be able to help the kitchen staff and learn more about production cooking will be in December when the Christmas meal is served.
“I find there to be a lot of benefits for both the students and the kitchen staff with these training sessions,” Schaefer said. “First of all, the kitchen staff receives extra help which is always appreciated, and the students that have the opportunity to learn something new will become more comfortable and confident cooking in their own kitchen. And not only that, but students who are interested in the culinary industry can get some hands-on experience in the kitchen.”
Even though the preparation for the Thanksgiving meal is over, Mrs. Schafer hopes to continue promoting the idea of students helping out in the kitchens throughout the district. One thing that Mrs. Schafer hopes to do is post signs around the school where students can sign up for certain jobs in the kitchen. And not only will this volunteer work educate the students in the kitchen, but it will allow them to gain new insights on themselves and the world around them.