Every day at 12:40 p.m., hungry students race and pack into the lunch line to get their school meals. They pick up their lunch and run off to eat.
Every single one of these students is greeted and handed their food by the same man. That man behind the counter is Andres Felix, and he runs the de Toledo cafeteria. Felix is the source of every single lunch ordered by dTHS students. Here is how he makes our lunches:
Once or twice a week, Felix goes to Cambridge Farms at around 9:00 am to purchase the meat-based items and frozen foods, and to Smart and Final to purchase sauces, pasta, fires and produce. While many high school cafeterias involve an elaborate system of supply trucks delivering food, Felix is able to fit his weekly deliveries into his own car. Felix lives in Palmdale so the drive to Cambridge Farms takes about an hour and ten minutes.
de Toledo being a small school, the kitchen staff comprises only two people: Felix, and his assistant, Maria Vargas. “She’s the one that does the cutting and prepares some of the items.” Vargas also assists in cleaning the kitchen after hours.
On an average school day, Vargas will come in at 8:00 and begin to cut vegetables.
By the time that Felix arrives, around 10:00, everything has been cut by Vargas. Vargas and Felix prepare an average of 100-120 lunches per day.
Foods such as fries are stored in a walk-in freezer, which in turn, is accessed by entering a walk-in cooler, which stores the produce. All of the food has the Ⓤ symbol to guarantee that it is kosher to eat, and Rabbi Lev checks once or twice a week to confirm that the kitchen is completely kosher.
There is also a miniature cooler below the grill in the kitchen to store raw meat for when it is time to be cooked.
Despite being a small kitchen, Felix and Vargas manage to feed over a hundred students every day. No trucks or frozen food are required, just a car and two chefs.
