Last year during lunch time, a student would be able to go to the “window side” of the cafeteria and get in line for smaller snacks and pre-made meals. This area, called the Drag ‘N Go, was frequently used last year. The Drag ‘N Go remains closed temporarily.
“We don’t have the staff to make all the food and keep it fully stocked,” Principal Todd Mueller said. “We also don’t have the staff to run all of it during lunch.”
With the new Gretna East High School, the kitchen staff was split this year due to the struggle to find people to fill all of the positions needed to run both operations. However, this issue is not only within the high schools, but district wide.
“The kitchen staffing issue is across the district,” Mueller said. “It is affecting Gretna High School because they had to pull some people away that were working here in order to staff some of the other buildings.”
Even with the shortage of staff, the people working in the kitchen continue making and serving food to hundreds of students each day. With Sarah Rangel being one of the staff members to help manage the Drag ‘N Go last year, she now works in the kitchen during the day, checking out the students when they pay for their meals.
“It takes five to seven of us to run this,” Rangel said. “Especially on a super busy day, like nuggets, crispitos and stuff like that.”
The students who got extras from Drag ‘N Go last year are not able to get them anymore, and they will have to get those snacks from the lunch line where the hot lunch is served. This is disappointing for some of the students who got their lunch from the Drag ‘N Go often.
“I used it every day,” sophomore Olivia Mendoza said. “It had so many more options, and it was nice having a separate area where all of that is available.”
The staff who operated the Drag ‘N Go area also decorated for different holidays and events and had music playing most of the time. Students enjoyed seeing all the different decorations.
“I loved seeing what the workers came up with for decorating and making it a fun environment,” Mendoza said. “I was really disappointed to see it go this year because I know a lot of other kids liked it too.”
Other students are disappointed because some of the items are no longer available this year, along with the closure of the Drag ‘N Go.
“Some of the options are discontinued because we don’t have a contract with Snapple anymore,” Rangel said. “We have a contract with Coke, so that’s why we got rid of the Accelerators and some of the Snapple.”
The discontinued items students used to be able to purchase at the Drag ‘N Go will stay gone, but there is a chance that the entire area could return by the end of the year.
“My understanding is that we are having a tough time getting anybody hired,” Mueller said. “If they were able to hire anybody, that’s why it’s temporarily closed and not permanently closed, because the idea is to hire enough people to get it to eventually reopen.”
