Lunch Is Served With Love by Dedicated Cafeteria Volunteers

Her granddaughter has moved on from Highland Park High School, but 81-year-old Sherri Harris plans to continue volunteering in the cafeteria for as long as she can.

“I don’t have as much energy as I used to,” she said. “But these girls, these moms, they think I have a lot of energy, so that makes me feel important, and they’re all so sweet to me. It’s just a fun thing to do.”

The longtime Park Cities resident helps out in the high school cafeteria several days every week. She’s one in a small army of volunteers who keep the lines moving and enable Highland Park schools to serve the best possible lunch to students.

Harris may not run into her granddaughter at the high school, but now she sees young neighbors, along with other students whose names and orders she has come to know.

“I just love these kids. When they greet me and say, ‘It’s good to see you, I missed you yesterday,’ … that means a lot to me,” she said while working behind the cafeteria’s cash register.

On Fridays, Harris is joined by fellow grandma Cookie Adams, who said her youngest grandchild is graduating this year, but she plans to continue volunteering.

“You just meet so many nice people,” she said. “Young and old, and the kids are amazing. They’re so polite. They’re so kind.”

Adams donned her “HPHS ‘Grand’ Volunteer” apron to serve pizza and cheese bread sticks on one Friday in April. But her station wasn’t the cafeteria’s most popular. There was a long line for Chick-fil-A sandwiches, along with waffle fries that the cafeteria cooks in-house. Gluten-free chicken skewers were available, as well as Brussels sprouts, which were more popular than parents of finicky eaters would expect.

“It’s not hard to serve vegetables and fruit here at all,” said food service manager Joan Bayes. “I give recognition to the coaches and the nutritionists that talk to the students.”

Bayes said that the cafeteria employs just 10 staff members to prepare breakfast and lunch, as well as serve the high school’s more than 2,000 students, teachers, and staff. “The show,” she said, are the dedicated parents and family members who volunteer for several hours one day each month to keep the cafeteria running smoothly.

“I think it’s a great example of the motto we have here, ‘enter to learn, go forth to serve,’” Bayes said. “I’m so proud of them. The children are so wonderful. They’re so polite. And it’s a good example to the students of volunteerism. Every day, they see their parents coming in.”

The impact of cafeteria volunteers doesn’t end when lunch is over. The money saved through volunteering and earned in food sales is gifted back to the district by schools’ parent teacher associations and organizations. 

At the high school, profits and savings enable the PTA to gift between $300,000 and $440,000 to the school annually, said Highland Park High School cafeteria volunteer chair Margarita Coale. 

But there are also intangible benefits for staff, who appreciate the show of support, for volunteers, who make connections with teachers and parents, and for students, who see their parents behind the counter.

“This is something important that we do, and we do it for them,” Coale said.