January 27, 1999
Lunch lady to retire after 25 years of serving students
By Cathy Willoughby
Staff Writer
Serving up nutritious lunches with a helpful smile, 59-year-old Marilyn Rakes has greeted youngsters in Clyde's Vine Street Elementary School's cafeteria line for 25 years.
She will be retiring the end of this week.
Rakes had worked for short periods of time at restaurants in the Fremont area and enjoyed cooking for family and friends. This prompted her to seek employment at the Clyde Schools, starting as a dishwasher.
She moved from dishwasher to assistant manager during her tenure. For the last 10 years, she has handled just about anything that could happen in a school cafeteria.
Her work day begins at 7:15 a.m. and concludes at 1:15 p.m., after the lunch crowd goes back to class.
''I do a little bit of everything,'' she said. ''I help prepare the food, step in when the manager is not here. The only things I don't do is cashier work, and our supervisor plans the menus.''
In a school cafeteria, large quantities are the rule, with everything to be served started at 7 in the morning for 400 children every day.
''When I first started, we served 700,'' she said. ''We bake all of our cookies; the dough comes in frozen. We make all the sauces ourselves -- taco, spaghetti and barbecue sauce. With spaghetti, I get the meat in, cook the spaghetti and mix it together, plus do some dishes and other different things, and I work on the line serving the students.''
She recalls when the previous manager left, causing a crisis when it came time to bake peanut butter cookies, because they had relied on her for that particular recipe. ''We had to call her back in to help, and then we had to throw away all of those cookies and start over,'' she said. ''The custodian wondered what the heck was in the garbage.
''I can finally move up the ladder, now that Marilyn's leaving,'' said her supervisor, Deb Newsome, with a chuckle. ''She has really been a godsend, with the amount of baking that she has done.''
''We have Deb taste things. If it's not good, she tells us what to add,'' Rakes stated.
Besides the school children, Rakes has served dinners at McPherson Junior High for special meetings and for the crowd at the annual grandparents visit.
One of the students has ''adopted'' Rakes. ''Her grandmother is a teacher here,'' Rakes said of the little first grader who has befriended her. ''She calls me 'Grandma,' too, which is fine because I don't have any grandchildren yet,'' she said with a smile.
After working with the children in Clyde for 25 years, she is always glad to see them and how they are doing as they grow. ''You see them more so when you are at stores,'' she said. ''I often see the Miller boy who used to work in here. And my husband's cousin had several grandchildren who went here.''
Rakes said cafeteria recipes have changed over the years, reflecting students' tastes. ''They like the 'Brunch for Lunch' with sausage, french toast sticks and potato rounds,'' she said. ''They don't care for Spanish rice. They don't like a lot of caseroles; we don't have a lot of tuna casseroles. And they don't like fruit as much as they used to.''
Many menu choices are dependent in part on government commodities, which Rakes and Newsome both said depended on the condition of the district's finances. ''We have created chicken fajitas to try and copy off of the fast food restaurants,'' Rakes explained.
Her favorite meal to prepare and eat at the cafeteria is spaghetti, with garlic bread with cheese as its complement.
''She's a creative person, whether she is cooking outside or around here,'' Newsome said of her assistant. ''I'll miss being able to swap recipes with her. Her lasagna is great.''
Rakes always enjoyed making special treats students for holidays. ''I make green bread for St. Pat's Day, where I use a cake mix, put pistachio pudding in it with sour cream and eggs,'' she added. ''And I used to make cut-out cookies for the kids.''
A resident of Clyde for 36 years, she said that she will spend more time with her husband. ''I imagine that I will miss it,'' she said of her work. ''My husband has been retired now for almost three years. Eventually I would like to do some volunteer work with my church and hospice.
''I used to be the youngest one here,'' she exclaimed. ''Now I am one of the oldest. The best part of working here for so long is being with the people, especially the little elementary children. And the camaraderie with everyone here is great.
''I know I will miss it, working with all of the people and talking to the teachers,'' Rakes said wistfully. ''But now I will start a new chapter of my life.''
''We are going to miss her,'' Newsome said. ''She is the heart and soul of the kitchen.''