Listen to the interview with Samone and Aaron Henkin from WYPR.

Name: Samone Flowers
Job title: Cafeteria Manager III
Photograph location: Connexions: A Community-Based Arts School
Years of service: 10
We live in a food desert in Baltimore City…I really worry a lot about my kids having just one meal over the weekend, if any. And believe it or not, they come to school on Monday morning, and when I get here at 6:15 or 6:30, they’re out there and they’re hungry. – Samone Flowers

Sharon Samone Wilson Flowers_Connexions_08-18-21
Transcript of Sharon Samone Wilson Flowers’ interview with Aaron Henkin by Rev.com

Samone Wilson Flowers:
Hello. My name is Samone Flowers. I am a Manager III for Baltimore City Public Schools, and I am responsible for three schools, Bard, the early college, ConneXions, the art school, and Angela Davis. Those are my three schools.
Aaron Henkin:
Tell me what your job entails, what an average day at work is like for you.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
A average day of work is actually preparing three meals for the kids, breakfast, lunch, supper, and a snack. Supper was just added because of the pandemic. However, what we do is we actually prep everything prior to service so that we can stay on task and time because everything is time sensitive. We serve a variety of things, including fresh fruits and vegetables. Some of the vegetables do come from our farms and our gardens. Some of our schools, like Angela Davis, do have a garden. And some of that, sometimes the vegetables that they grow, we can use in the schools.
Aaron Henkin:
Tell me a little bit about your own history. You’ve been here a long time. Talk about when you came into the fold as working in food service at the schools.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
Well, I originally started in 1977, even though it was a short stay because I moved away, so I left. And then I came back in 19, no, 2000… I want to say 11. I think it was 11. So I’ve been here 10 years.
Aaron Henkin:
Out of pure curiosity. Talk to me about how, I’ll put it this way, you started work in food service in the schools in 1977. Talk to me about how school meals have changed since 1977.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
Well, back then, everything was actually done basically from scratch. The vegetables, the meats, everything was done from scratch. Fast-forwarding to now, everything is basically pre-packaged, but freshly frozen, if that makes any sense. The quality of the food that we use today in the school is just as great as it was back then because we’re using more USDA food and the quality, most our food is exceptional.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
We do use fresh vegetables every day and fruit. No, I’m sorry, fresh vegetables every day. And a lot of frozen, a lot of fresh fruit. All the fruit is fresh and the vegetables are frozen for the most part. And the quality is really exceptional. We do really well. The kids really, really like the frozen and fresh vegetables and fruit, as opposed to canned. So it goes really well. We do very well. We also offer fresh salads every day in the schools, and some of the things have come from the farm or from the schools farms that they have used in the past. And like I said, the kids grow a lot of their stuff, especially at the Angela Davis school, they had a garden. And some of those things that we could use to incorporate in the salads.
Aaron Henkin:
Talk to me about some of the popular favorites for the students over the years.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
Well, of course chicken is very, very popular in Baltimore City public schools, and also the meatballs. They really love the meatball subs because they are, it’s a variety of way that they are actually prepared. And the children really, really enjoy that. And they also love the fresh deli sandwiches. The deli sandwiches are made every day. Every day, they are offered every day to the students as an option. They get choices, they do have choices. And a lot of students, one of my schools, actually Bard school is very big, very big on the deli sandwiches. So that’s another popular one that they like. We also added, it’s like chicken Alfredo. Very big, very, very, very, very big and tasty. The kids really loved that too. In fact, the menu has really increased and offer a lot, a larger variety of what the kids will actually eat. So at my three sites, waste is kept at a minimum.
Aaron Henkin:
Tell me a little bit more about why and how you ended up on this path in this job. Did you always love to cook?
Samone Wilson Flowers:
Well, I didn’t grow up cooking. I used to have to watch my mom and my older sisters, and I always was intrigued of how well everything tasted. I was like the taster, so I kind of developed a passion for it and I really started cooking. And once I started cooking, I enjoyed it so much. Then I had a family and my family loved to cook and all of my kids, their friends would come over and everybody was like, “Oh, can you fix this? Can you fix that?” So I kind of, sort of developed my passion that way.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
I really didn’t think I was that great at it. Evidently, I must have been because a lot of them enjoy the food so, so, so, so much. And when it comes to kids, I’ve always had a passion for kids. Everybody was always at my house because I can’t see what’s going on somewhere else. However, I will always cook meals every day for my children, except for Saturday. And growing up, we had our own gardens, too. We had fresh vegetables all the time. So my kids actually grew up with fresh vegetables, no canned things. Back in the sixties and seventies, that wasn’t a big thing. That didn’t come along until the eighties and nineties. So everything was fresh.
Aaron Henkin:
Talk to me about this past year and a half, about the pandemic. How’s your work changed during the pandemic?
Samone Wilson Flowers:
Well, actually work has changed drastically. Of course, we had to make a lot of provisions, a lot of changes and adjustments. However, we never stopped serving the community or the students. I think Baltimore City did an exceptional job with the way food was distributed. Families were not hungry. We distributed breakfast, lunch and suppers every day, five days a week. And the quality of the food that they received was equal to exactly what we used in the school.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
It was challenging. However, it was just as rewarding because you never know who has food and who does not have food. So for me, it was like one of the greatest things I ever did in my life. Being able to ensure that our students and their families were still getting fed and were still getting nutritious food and healthy food. And that they could come to several sites that we had open. We also offered fresh produce and vegetables. We had a lot of services going on in the school and we had some really, really strong people that actually came out. The managers, the workers, to work these sites. And it was very challenging. However, I think we all did an exceptional job with delivering exceptional customer service and food to our students and their families.
Aaron Henkin:
Do you remember the day when, I mean, I guess you guys must have had a meeting and were like, this is how things are going to change. Talk about that day. Talk about that meeting. Talk about what you heard and what went through your head?
Samone Wilson Flowers:
Well actually, it wasn’t really a meeting, meeting. What it was, it was just, when I joined in, I was like the hub. I held all the food, a lot of the food to be distributed to the schools so that they can distribute it to the families of the students. I feel like we just put it all together at once. And North Avenue did an exceptional job because, of course it all came from them, but it went so smoothly and so fast. In the beginning, it was, to me, it was like, okay, this is really challenging. How are we going to do this? How are we going to make it happen?
Samone Wilson Flowers:
Once we just started, we just started doing it, just making it happen. We would actually prepare the food, bag it up. And the families would come and get it. So it went really fast and I feel that it went exceptional because it was never a gap in between food not being ready for pickup. It was, I mean, it was a consistent thing. And I mean, some of the lines sometimes really could get challenging. And especially with the produce, the extra produce being offered. I feel that the staff and the workers did an exceptional job and I really feel like they deserve all the accolades in the world. They, we all really, really worked diligently to make it happen. And I never heard one person complain, not one.
Aaron Henkin:
I wonder if you can give me an example. Was there one day during this pandemic that you just remember in detail, or a family that you interacted with that really made you realize, wow, I’m making a really important difference here.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
Yes. I can’t even remember the name of that school because it wasn’t my school. We had a family, a lady and her husband, I think her husband was in a wheelchair and they needed 12 because the mom said that they, the family had to join a couple families together because, finances or whatever. However, when we gave her the 12 meals, she was ecstatic. She was so grateful and so thankful. I mean, she came back several times to the site and then we didn’t see anymore. Wasn’t sure exactly what happened with her, but when she did come, she was so grateful and so thankful for us that she said that if this hub, if this site was not open, this meal site was not open, they would have had no food. No food, because they didn’t have money or food stamps to get food. So she was very grateful and thankful for these sites. In fact, she asked us when was the sites going to close, and we told her right now, they will be open, during that time, so.
Aaron Henkin:
Let me ask you to think about, maybe this was a long time ago, maybe it was more recently, but I wonder if you have in your memory a particular student that you kind of, that really made an impression on you, that you sort of developed a bond with and, and who really developed a bond with you. Just tell the story about that, those kinds of relationships.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
It’s funny, because that would be several students. In fact, I was out at dinner at, what’s the name of that restaurant, Texas Roadhouse. And this was about a week ago. And I was talking to the principal of the ConneXions school. I said, “Oh, I seen Marcus,”. And she was like, “Really? What is he doing?” I say, “Well, he works at the Texas Roadhouse”. And the funny thing was, well, when I walked into the door, I felt this boom on me. And it was him. He was like, “Oh, Miss Samone, I missed you. I had missed seeing you.” He actually, he graduated. However, this kid, Marcus was one of those kids that just, no matter what he did, he would make you laugh. I don’t care what kind of day you was having, what you was going through. He would come and just say something funny just to make me laugh or whatever.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
And I mean, most of my days are really good, but he would just keep me laughing. I mean, he would on his free periods, he would come to the cafeteria. “Ms. Samone, can I get a piece of fruit?” Or “Ms. Samone, I missed breakfast. Can I get some cereal?” Yes, we are going to feed the kids. Doesn’t matter. We must feed them. But he, I think he was really my most, he inspired me a lot with my job, because he was always happy and he would tell the kids, “Oh, this is so good. Y’all got to come and get y’all lunch,”. And I loved that about him. He would definitely champion for our cafeteria. So I have to say, Marcus.
Aaron Henkin:
What do you wish people knew about your work, the kind of work you guys do? What kind of misconceptions do you think people have about your work?
Samone Wilson Flowers:
I think one of the biggest misconception that people have about our job is that all we do is prepare food. That is totally incorrect. There’s a whole process with food that people are not aware about, temperature and time control. It’s also sanitation. It’s also preparation. It’s also knowing counts. You have to count. It’s also, when your food come in, inspecting your food, you just don’t accept it. You have to physically open boxes and inspect your food. You have to watch dates, everything, and I say everything is very time sensitive. From pulling the utensils out of the box to getting it to the students. Everything is time sensitive. And I think people, another thing I think people don’t really understand about that is that we are highly educated in the food industry. We are the best of the best in Baltimore City.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
We really know our stuff. We know exactly what the food temperature should be for each and every food item that we’re serving. We also know when to discard things, which is very, not often, but it does happen. I would, to say, oh, we don’t throw away anything is incorrect because we do. And sometimes there is a lot of waste. However, we have to, once we realize the waste, we have to try to come up with something different, as far as the counts and everything, to have less waste.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
It’s also presentation of food. Children tastes with their eyes. They do not taste with their mouth. If something, they’ll say, oh, that looks good. They will try it. They, 99% of the time, if the food looks good, they’re going to try it. Presentation is everything, if it doesn’t look good, they will let you know, that look like bleep, bleep, bleep. Of course. And I love that about them because they’re brutally honest. And that makes us better. We do a lot, a lot. And between serving the lunches, or the breakfast, or the supper, in between sanitation must take place. Everything must be cleaned. Everything must be filled before that next line get in there. It’s a whole system. And like I said, the presentation is everything, because if it looks good, they’re going to take it. They’re going to take it, so.
Aaron Henkin:
I’m going to let you go in just a minute. But, when people talk about schools and kids and their education, there’s sort of the public facing part of the school, like the teachers and the classroom. Teachers obviously, and they deserve it. They get a lot of credit, but they couldn’t do their job if their kids were hungry. Talk about nutrition. Talk about just how integral you guys are to the kids being able to get an education.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
I think Baltimore City have gotten really, really creative of how we deliver food to our students. We have grab and go’s. If a kid is late for school, we have vending machines that they can just grab something and go. Also, we offer a classroom breakfast. So if a kid comes late, there’s a breakfast that he can actually go to his classroom and have. If the bus is late, they can still come to the cafeteria. We will never turn a student away for any meal, regardless of what the situation is. We will serve that student. So, I mean, we have several different ways of getting nutrition to the kids every single day.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
And we also make it very easy for them because we also offer them choices. They have choices. So we make sure that there are several things available because every kid don’t like every thing and also with allergies and all of those, you have to keep all that stuff in mind. That’s another thing that people don’t realize. We must know who’s allergic to what, and sometimes we just have breakfast that is left in the cafeteria that they can actually grab and go grab that too, depending on which way they come into school. So if they come in through this way, they can, the cafeteria is right there. If they come in that way, it’s a vending machine. That’s a grab and go. So yes.
Aaron Henkin:
Just personally speaking, what’s, this is a two-part question. What’s the most difficult part of your job, the part of the job that gives you the biggest headache? And what’s your favorite part of the job?
Samone Wilson Flowers:
Well, when I tell you this, it probably sounds kind of crazy or corny. The most difficult part of my job for me is going home on the weekends, not knowing whether Tommy, or Roberto or whoever is going to get food over that weekend. That’s the hardest part because the kids are my number one priority. I don’t know what hunger feels like because I was truly blessed growing up. However, I know that we live in a food desert in Baltimore City, and I also know that the income does not match the household. So I really do worry a lot about my kids having just one meal over the weekend, if any. And believe it or not, they have come to school on Monday morning, and when I get here at 6:15 or 6:30, and they’re out there and they’re hungry, do I feed them? Absolutely because they are entitled to breakfast. So that’s the hardest part. What was the second part?
Aaron Henkin:
What’s your favorite part of the job?
Samone Wilson Flowers:
The kids! That’s honestly, the kids are the most rewarding part because for several reasons. First and foremost, I know that when they come to school, I know they’re eating. I know they’re getting fed. So I know they’re good. I know that the food that we offer them will keep them focused while they’re in class. The fact that we are not just food and nutrition workers, we’re also mothers, grandmothers to these kids. You know what I mean, counselors, they share a lot with us. And they’ll tell us, “Ms. Samone, all the food stamps are gone. Is there something I can have to eat? I’m still hungry.”
Samone Wilson Flowers:
We must feed these kids, irregardless because we do not know their circumstance. So I can honestly say the greatest part of my job is knowing that my kids really enjoy the food that we serve them. They know that no matter what, under any circumstances, they will get three great meals and fruit and vegetables every single day. And in fact, the biggest part is that when they come and want to give you a hug and say, “Thank you, Ms. Samone, the food was great.” That’s the most rewarding part for me, for me,
Aaron Henkin:
Last question. I interview a lot of different people who do different jobs and it seems like whatever job you end up doing in life, it gives you a certain perspective on life in general or it changes you. My question is, I wonder how this work, this path, this career of yours has changed you as a person.
Samone Wilson Flowers:
It has made me, it changed me a lot. I’ve always had a passion for kids, but not this deep. I started really realizing that we live in a food desert. I would see kids like just trying to make money in the streets just by selling waters or squeegee kids, or, I mean, even before then, when they would say, you would go to the grocery store and they would say, “Well, can you get me something to eat?” Or, “Can you give me some change?” or whatever. And just, I guess for me, just knowing that even the smallest thing make a great difference to a kid and their nutritional growth throughout life is, I guess it’s just everything to me.