500 meals a day and lots of hugs: the life of Woodland Heights' kitchen manager

It was because of the schedule, primarily, that Tess Seymour first started working in the kitchen at Woodland Heights Elementary School. But what started as a part-time job has turned into a labor of love that has lasted for 30 years and counting.

Seymour, who has been kitchen manager at Woodland Heights for about 10 years, started as a dishwasher there in 1978. But running the school's kitchen was never her plan.

A Laconia native, she was looking forward to a career as an airline stewardess after high school, and had even been accepted into a training program. "Then I met my husband," she said. This was during the period when having a husband would be cause for a stewardess's termination, so she dropped that plan. She and her husband Mike settled down and built a home on Gilford Ave. She worked for a while in the city's Assessing Office, but before too long they had a couple of young sons and she quit.

She felt it was important for her children that she stay home. When her sons were old enough to start attending Woodland Heights, she decided she was ready, too. "It was a perfect job. It was part-time and I had summers off." She would come into the kitchen at 10 a.m., wash dishes for a while, help serve the lunch, do some more dishes and was then home for her sons.

After about 10 years of working as a dishwasher, she became cook, then head cook, and is now manager of the kitchen, working under the district's food service director. She's been in her current post, which is still considered part-time, for about a decade, and has no intentions to retire until she absolutely has to. Her reasoning is simple: "I love my job."

Seymour loves to cook, which is a good thing considering she and her staff of five — all of whom are women, they almost always are in school kitchens — prepare several hundred meals each day. For example, on one day this week the kitchen produced 100 breakfasts and 288 lunches for students at Woodland Heights. In addition, the kitchen also made 195 lunches for Elm Street School students and 78 for the students at Holy Trinity, a private Catholic school.

She also loves being around kids. They enjoy her presence, too, greeting her by first name in the lunch line and showering her with hugs. She said she gets about seven or eight hugs each day, "and I take all of them I can get."

There have been some significant changes in school food service since she came on board. More and more students are getting two meals each day at school. "Definitely there's more students eating breakfast at school. We actually have a darn good breakfast," she said.

Another sea change in the industry is an increased emphasis on nutrition. Real butter, soda, ice cream and junk food are no longer offered. In their place, whole grain rolls and sandwich breads are the norm, as are lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. "The kids really like that. As long as they have ranch dressing, they eat it."

With more than half of the students coming from homes that qualify them under federal income standards for free or reduced lunches, Seymour celebrates the district's commitment to healthy meals. "I know I'm giving them a nutritious meal and that makes me feel good." She gives credit to the health-conscious transition to her boss, Food Service Director Tim Goossens.

Students have a lot of variety at the school, too. If student's don't care for the hot meal or the cold sandwich offered that day, they can fill up at the salad bar or eat a peanut-butter sandwich and a yogurt. That is, they were able to get a PB & J until the recent national scare about salmonella-tainted peanut products. Peanut butter was pulled from the school's menus in response.

"When this peanut thing came out, I had kids crying in the line." To appease the peanut butter fans, Goossens substituted sunflower butter, which Seymour said looks a lot like its peanut cousin and tastes a little sweeter, and it's gone over pretty well so far. "I think it's a wonderful thing because I don't have to worry about peanut allergy," she said, which is another trend on the rise among students.

Seymour swears it's actually easier to cook for hundreds than it is to cook for a handful. Her favorite time of year is Thanksgiving, when the kitchen offers what she calls a "real McCoy" feast for students, who are encouraged to bring their parents and grandparents. Work for that event starts two weeks ahead of time. "I love doing the Thanksgiving Dinner. I thrive on that."

Even with all the young, hungry bellies depending on Seymour and her staff, she doesn't find the job especially difficult or stressful. "I just know what needs to be done and get it done. It all just falls into place."

Maybe it's her experience in the job that makes it easy for her. In any case, the years on the job haven't diminished the reward she feels filling tray after tray of healthy food and handing it to happy students. "My favorite part of the job is seeing the kids. I like seeing the kids and saying 'hi.' I know they're being fed properly."

The hugs don't hurt, either.