While most BVH students grabbed lunch without noticing any differences, the cafeteria staff was working around a temporary walk-in fridge upgrade. Although the fridge was not broken, repainting and maintenance required staff to temporarily reorganize how food was stored. Despite having to work around the fridge repair for 3-4 weeks, students continued receiving meals without interruption as cafeteria workers adjusted storing food behind the scenes. Cafeteria manager Monica Garcia Rebolloso explained that the maintenance was originally planned for summer, but scheduling delays caused the work to take place while school was in session. Rebolloso described how she prepared in advance, expecting repairs to happen before students returned.

“During the summer, we did not have summer school and I was planning on fixing it. I emptied the fridge and prepared it so the repair technician could come and work on it. Something did not work out, or they got a lot of other jobs, so they never came to fix the walk-in [fridge]. They started working on the fridge while school was in session,” Rebolloso said.

Rebolloso clarified that the fridge was not unusable and explained that food safety was not at risk. According to her, additional refrigeration units were provided so that operations could continue without affecting students.

“The school provided us with additional refrigeration, so we were never without a fridge. We had two new units for us to use. It was not a matter of us not having a way to refrigerate food; it was just more of a hassle because we did not have our usual walk-in,“ Rebolloso said.

Senior Alexis Gonzalez, who works as one of the two team leaders in the cafeteria from 7-8 a.m., expressed what temporary adjustment looked like from a student workers perspective. Gonzalez explained that food had to be moved to other units and daily routines required a few extra steps.

“We had to store food in different refrigerator units outside the cafeteria in the main dining room,” Gonzalez said. “It was definitely different because we had to go back-and-forth between the dining room and the kitchen. It was a bit hard to stay organized. We just asked more questions in regards to where the food was, and which refrigerating unit [to get the food from].”

Gonzalez mentioned how the experience gave her a deeper appreciation for the work that the cafeteria staff does every day. She reflected on how challenging it can be to prepare meals for hundreds of students especially with limited amounts of space.

“It definitely taught me that the cafeteria workers really have a lot to deal with sometimes, and they honestly deserve all the credit because it is not easy working in that kitchen without a big working fridge in little to no space, especially when preparing food for that many students every single day,” Gonzalez said. “It was the best feeling in the world to have space in the regular fridges again. [It was a relief to] be able to go into the walk-in [fridge] and grab what I need and leave without having to grab a cart, go out to  the main dining room and then bring it back to the kitchen.”

Gonzalez mentioned that the staff handled the situation professionally and kept everything running smoothly. She sees how difficult it can be feeding hundreds of students a day while working around it. Senior Alec Taitingfong, a student worker, explained that while the change did not stop their work, it did create time challenges during preparation periods.

“The temporary solution was to move everything in the fridge to the other ones in the back of the cafeteria. Rather than use the main fridge, we had to use the other ones that contained our reserves in case we ran out of a certain ingredient,” Taitingfong said. “The hardest part was mainly the time consumption. Going back-and-forth ate into our time there, since we only had an hour to get different meals prepared for the students.”

Taitingfong states the difference is noticeable in daily operations. He explained that having the walk-in availability again makes preparation more efficient and accessible for workers. The restored space has allowed staff to return to their normal routine with extra steps.

“With the [walk-in] fridge [available] it is a lot more convenient to the workers and makes the ingredients more accessible to use, as opposed to it being [inaccessible] which was inconvenient. It helps us move faster during preparation,” Taitingfong said.