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

Name: Gail Pendelton
Job title: Cafeteria Manager III
Photograph location: photographed at Western High School
Years of service: 33
One fellow, he was continuously on the parking lot when we drove up. “Why you out here at this time of morning? Come on in, because it’s cold. What, you hungry?” He said, “Yeah, I’m hungry.” You know the importance of what you’re doing when you see something like that. Your whole mindset changes… about what you are doing, how to look at what you’re serving, and who you’re serving. – Gail Pendelton

Gail Pendelton_Western HS_08-24-21
Transcript of Gail Pendelton’s interview with Aaron Henkin by Rev.com

Gail Pendelton:
Hi, I’m Gail Pendelton. I’m here at Western High School. I have 33 years of service in the food and nutrition department. I’m also the Food Service Manager III, one of the highest managers you can attest to.
Aaron Henkin:
33 years. Rewind the clock 33 years, talk to me about the beginning of this path, how you ended up starting this journey.
Gail Pendelton:
I began this journey because I needed a job. That’s actually why I did come. I came in as a temp, and back then they were called sub workers. I came in for six hours a day. I moved up the ladder quickly from that point, because they seen my potential, my manager saw my potentials. Then, I became permanent after six months. The sub, you’re temporary, and so I became permanent after six months. Then, my regional, she saw my efforts, she saw work ethics, and we continued on from there. She said, “Okay, let me see can’t you be a Food Service Worker II.” Once I became a Food Service Worker II, I stayed in that position for maybe a year, and then I became a manager. Then fourth, I’m Manager II, now Manager III, and that’s where I am at this point.
Aaron Henkin:
Let me ask you, when you first started the job, what surprised you the most? What took the most getting used to? What was that first initial learning curve all about, learning what the job was, and what you were supposed to do?
Gail Pendelton:
I didn’t know anything, nothing. I think the whole thing was a learning curve for me, because I didn’t know anything. When the ladies, they really did nurture me, and they taught me every detail of the job. They really did. Back then, they had different positions, they cook, they had bakers, they had the managers, they had food service employees. They were strategic on what they had to do, so you went from one station to the next to learn the entire system overall. I baked, I prepped, cases and multiple cases of chicken cleaned. We had fresh produce back then. One of the local farmers would bring us produce, and we washed and cleaned collard greens, and washed our fruit ourselves. We sliced the lunch meat. Everything was made, even our hamburgers, our ground beef, we made those with the hamburgers and meatloaf, we physically did that assignment.
Gail Pendelton:
I went from station to station, and back then that’s where you really grasped what we did here in Food Nutrition Service. It was tedious, but it was learning. It helped promote the assurance of what you were given nutritional meals. It meant so much to you because you had to prepare it yourself.
Aaron Henkin:
Bring me up tho the present. Talk about, you mentioned you’re Level III Manager, paint a picture of just the scale that you’re operating at. Talk about how many students you feed a day, how many staff workers you’re managing a day, and just how complex this big ballet is.
Gail Pendelton:
I have Weston and Polly, and these are the two largest high schools here in Baltimore City. Weston has about 1,250 students, and Polly, I believe, has 2,100 students, so our days are very busy. I’ve had up to 15 employees that worked with me, I say along side of me, I won’t say beneath me, because I couldn’t do this without them. The scale is coming in, in the morning, prepping breakfast, making sure the breakfast is served, and making sure the employees schedules are up, making sure the time sheets is there, making sure we’re in compliance with the city and state far as the temps are done, making sure the sanitation is properly done, making sure everyone is in uniform, and keeping abreast of everything that is happening along with finding out what the change of the schedule might be for today.
Gail Pendelton:
Maybe some students, they didn’t give me an update that the students may be leaving the building, and so then I have to adjust the lunch count, and things like that, along with the inventory, along with what we’re doing for today, and always, always forecast for next week and next month. That’s mainly … and we interact with the students. I’m usually out there monitoring the breakfast and the lunch program, and sometimes we have the supper program here, and so I’m monitoring constantly throughout the day, making sure that we are in compliance with all the requirements set for us throughout the day from not just Baltimore City Food and Nutrition, but the state. The state do a surprise visit, they don’t call you. They surprise you to make sure that you are in alignment with what they have, your master plan along with the sanitation guidelines. It’s really important. This level, Level III, and you have mass amount of students, and that’s how you get to a Level III position, because of mass amount of students you serve throughout each day.
Aaron Henkin:
I wonder if you have a specific memory, a specific story, a specific example of a student that sticks in your memory, that you developed a bond with maybe, or that you just remember that opened your eyes to how important your job is?
Gail Pendelton:
Yes, I do. I was at [Calverton 00:06:21] Elementary Middle School. Usually the ladies and I would get there a little early, maybe 6:00, 6:15. We didn’t have to be there, but we liked to congregate with one another prior to starting our work day. One fellow, he continuously was on the parking lot when we drove up. It was cold outside, and we look, and he doesn’t have a coat on, and he looks like the food was on his shirt from the prior day. He was just looking, and I’m saying, “Why you out here at this time of morning?” He said, “Nothing. I’m just waiting.” I said, “Come on in, because it’s cold, so stay in the kitchen.”, because we didn’t want the students, no one was in the building, except for us and the custodians, so we didn’t want him outside roaming the building and hall, so I kept him in the back of the kitchen.
Gail Pendelton:
I asked him, I said, “What, you hungry?” He said, “Yeah, I’m hungry.” I said, “Okay.”, so I got him something to eat, and then we started asking questions like, “Okay, okay, your mom and dad let you off early?” “No.” He was reluctant to say anything, but we started noticing his nails and his clothing. One of the other employees came in and said, “He was really hungry yesterday.” We started noticing, and I said, “He’s been on the parking lot quite a bit.” This is what humbled me the most, come to find out, this child was homeless. He would stay at his friend’s home at night, and get up early in the morning, and leave out before the friend’s parents got up for work. He would come into the school and get some food in the morning. That’s a humbling experience.
Gail Pendelton:
You know the importance of what you’re doing when you see something like that. Your whole mindset changes. Not that you didn’t know the importance then, but now you really have experienced the importance of this nutritional program. This is not just somebody coming to eat, this was somebody that was desperately hungry. The same young man, one of my employees was coming to work, and stopped at a grocery store. The security guard had that same young man hemmed up in the grocery store, and she said, “Why do you have him, getting him?” He stole hotdogs and bread, it was in his stuff. She said, “I’ll pay for the hotdogs and bread, but I want you to understand if he’s coming in here stealing hotdogs and bread, he’s hungry. He’s not coming in and take your money, he’s coming to get some food.” He said, “I was going to get some for my siblings.”
Gail Pendelton:
This is humbling. This will make you know, whether this is your site, this is what you’re supposed to do, or not. It changes your life. It change your perspective about what you are doing, and how to look at what you’re serving, and who you’re serving.
Aaron Henkin:
Talk to me about this past year and a half, the pandemic. Talk about how that just changed the game for you guys.
Gail Pendelton:
Tremendously, tremendously. Serving food on the outside of the building, which was never, never, because we wanted to make sure we were in compliance as far as the temps are concerned. First offering the breakfast, lunch, dinners and suppers through that process, and snack. Then, students coming into the building and had to make sure that we singled out and covered hens trays, and making sure we weren’t passing on the virus, or the virus wasn’t coming to us, making sure we were covered. It was, and it still is, not just was, it still is a task. We’re looking at it, we know how important it is, but we’re still concerned about the Covid. We’re still concerned about it, but we know we have to do something to feed these students.
Gail Pendelton:
For me, the pandemic, I was home before they started opening back up the schools, and they were giving vegetable boxes away. I was like, “What can I do? What can I do?” It came to me, I went on Facebook, and I knew some parents didn’t know what to do with this food. I started showing them how to prepare the food and what to get to implement those items in other ways, and how you could make multiple dishes with just those vegetable boxes, and what to get, and where to get it from at a cheaper cost, and if you want a different flavor, go try the dollar store, because usually the brand names put it under another name in the dollar store before they actually bring it to your local supermarkets. You can actually get that same product for a dollar. Then, you’ll know whether you’ll want to purchase it once it leaves the dollar store.
Gail Pendelton:
All of that information I was giving out on Tuesdays and Thursdays on Facebook to try to help assist in that way, because I needed to do something. My passion is these kids, and I needed to do something. It’s a game changer. It’s a game changer. You look at things differently, not just for the student’s life, but your life also. I know some people that have left here because of the Covid-19.
Aaron Henkin:
I wonder if you might talk a little bit about the tight rope you have to walk, or the push and pull between serving the food that you know the kids are going to eat and enjoy, but also tipping them in the direction of healthy food as well. It’s not kid’s first choice to eat a mound of vegetables, but you probably have to get creative. You’ve seen 33 years of this struggle, I imagine. Just talk about some of the tricks of the trade you’ve learned to open students’ eyes to bigger menu of healthier foods and give them hat they want, but also give them an opportunity to eat healthier.
Gail Pendelton:
Absolutely. The different levels of Pre-K through fifth, eighth through ninth, tenth, eleventh, is different ways, different presentations. The younger kids, elementary school kids, they’re more impressionable. You can get them to eat vegetables. Middle schools, eh. High schools, I’m doing what I want. What we had to do is present it in a way, let them see you eating. I usually get my lunch, if I’m eating lunch that day and I have time, I go out and sit amongst the students and eat my lunch. If they see you eating it, that’s saying, “Okay, it must be okay. She’s eating it.”
Gail Pendelton:
Sometimes students will come in and say, “Where did you get that from?”, and I show them the name of the product, it’s the same name that’s in the grocery stores. They’re like, “Oh, I didn’t know that.” I say, “It’s the same products.”, and they will say, “Well, I don’t know, because … “, especially high school students, “I don’t know, because … ” Then I explain why we do what we do. It’s a nutritional program that feeds the body, the whole child. Our nutritional program is not just for today, it’s for a lifetime. Once upon a time, I would go in classrooms. My principal at one of the other schools would let me go in the classroom and explain the different meals that we were going to have that week. Elementary part, they would create posters for that week. Every week they would change the posters in the cafeteria of what we’re going to have, the menus and how they think it should look on the posters, creating the posters. We would incorporate that. It’s different things, but presentation is the most important, because we eat with our eyes first. We eat with our eyes first.
Aaron Henkin:
That seems important. You’re not the first person I’ve heard that from this past week. Couple more quick ones and I’ll let you get on with your day. What is the most frustrating part of the job, part of the job that gives you the biggest headache, and what is the most satisfying part of the job?
Gail Pendelton:
The most frustrating part of the job is trying to figure out what these children are thinking. It’s frustrating, because one day they’ll love this item, and the next day, “I hate it.”, and the following time, “Oh, I love that. I didn’t say I didn’t …” It’s difficult to map out what they’re going to eat, especially high school students. That’s a difficult task. One time that product is highly recommended, and a month from now it’s, “We didn’t ask for that.” That’s the difficult times. They are changing, so that’s not just in school, but that’s at home also. They’re teenagers, and this is what they do. That’s difficult, but we manage. We manage because we understand what they’re going through and how … so I say, “Okay. Not that today? Okay. Let see, we have a couple other items which you may be interested in.” That’s the different.
Gail Pendelton:
The most rewarding is when they come in and they start talking and communicating with the whole staff. They just telling them what their day is like, or what their expectations is, and they want the food, and it’s delicious, and they’re going throughout their day. They’re just talking to all the staff that they see inside the kitchen. Most of the time, most of them don’t come in and want to say anything to you, but when they come and they talking and they say, “I like this. How you doing.” It makes you feel like I have this purpose, I’m here for a reason.
Aaron Henkin:
I was going to ask you, it seems like, for as important and as essential as you and your teams work is, you’re … Everyone talks about how important students’ teachers are, and the forward facing people at a school, but I guess my question is, what do you want people to understand about the work you do? What are some of the misconceptions you think people might have about the work you do? I’ll let you think about that for a second.
Gail Pendelton:
The misconception is that we’re just here, and we’re meaningless. We’re just here, just in case somebody’s hungry, or just in case somebody wants something. That’s the misconception, because we are some of the first people they see in the morning. It’s so important until, if we don’t give you the nutrition that you need to go to the classroom, whatever the teacher’s teaching in that classroom, you can’t retain if you’re hungry. Like I always said, Jesus fed before he taught. He did. He fed before he taught, because he knew the meaning because he’s Jesus. He knew the meaning of nutrition, they were hungry. We know that these students come in hungry. Some of them may not want to show it because of pride, and they feel like they’re going to be bullied behind it, but we try to keep that on down low if we know a child wants something extra. We don’t put it out on blast or anything like that. We just say, “Just come back.” We know the importance of it. We know that these students are not just coming who really wants it just to come, because they have an opportunity. They come because they’re hungry.
Gail Pendelton:
That’s basically, it sums up to. Most people don’t give us accolades for what we do. They don’t see us as, some places, I’m not going to say all, some places don’t see us as important as the teachers are. The teachers are very important, but not only are, I say, the cafeteria staff is important, but the custodial staff is very important, the cleanliness of the building. You have so many resources that’s here in the building that everyone is a piece of the puzzle, and you can’t leave anyone out. If a piece is left out, that means one of the students, or several students, may not be able to receive all that they need for that day, or whatever.
Aaron Henkin:
Well said. Last question for you, you talk about some moments during your career that really opened your eyes, were game changers for you, as you say. I wonder how, if you can just reflect on how this career path has changed you and evolved you, developed you as a person in the rest of your life. Whatever job we do, it changes us as a person. I wonder what this career has taught you, how it’s changed you as a person?
Gail Pendelton:
So much. I’m more compassionate. My eyes are certainly open, as I go from around the city, or any other cities, I see things that most people who have not had to serve communities see. It makes you view life differently. I started standing on the corners feeding people, from the corners, making soup and going out on corners, because of the addition and the children with addicted parents or family members, whatever, on the corners with those family members. I had a compassion to go out and start feeding those people also. Knowing that they’re people, knowing that this is just a situation, and doesn’t have to last for a lifetime, I see that if I can move someone forward and just by feeding them, go to another higher level, to just feeding. I know sometimes some people think it’s simple, but just feeding that person and giving them some nutrition, and that may broaden their day, encourage their day to say, “This day I shall change this.”
Gail Pendelton:
Also, I just love people. I’m a people watcher, I sit and watch people. I sit and notice … I’m going to give you this story. It was my birthday, maybe about 15 years ago, I was in the mall and I saw this lady. I’m sitting there eating something and I saw this lady, she had eight kids with her. She was sitting there, and she bought one large fry. Immediately, a person like me would say, “Oh, she put one fry, she has eight children plus herself.” She wanted to treat those children, to me, I’m saying to myself, it may not have been so, but she wanted to treat the children. I just walked over and said, “How you doing? Let’s talk.” We were about the same age, I said, “Come on girl, let’s talk.”, and she said, “Huh?” I said, “Here, take this 20 bucks and get some more fries.”, and she said, “You don’t know how you blessed me.”
Gail Pendelton:
Those observations that you have, because of where you work …
Aaron Henkin:
Stand back just a second. That’s okay. There we go. You think they’re moving through, or they’re going to …
Gail Pendelton:
I don’t know.
Aaron Henkin:
There they go.
Gail Pendelton:
Somebody’s up there. I don’t know what they’re doing.
Aaron Henkin:
You were saying this woman said, “You don’t know how you blessed me.”
Gail Pendelton:
Yeah, “You don’t know how you blessed me.” I didn’t get into the details, because people don’t want to share their information, but I knew then that eight children and yourself, and you’re buying one large fry. You’re taking them out because something else is going on. They’re outside. It’s humbling to me. It makes me more humble, too, where I am, and what I can do for someone else.
Aaron Henkin:
Anything else that you want to share that I neglected to ask you about?
Gail Pendelton:
Yes. This is my own personal belief, Baltimore City school’s food and nutrition program has the best programs there is. They are, because they have taken all the items that students really like from outside, and tried to incorporate it in our nutritional program. Yes, it’s a reduced sodium. Yes, it’s reduced sugars, but most of the time the students don’t know. They just know it’s school food. They have implemented in the program, and they have the best foods. They have the best produce. We get all the same items from the stores, from the vendors that the supermarkets get. That’s what I wanted people to know. Send your children to school and let them have breakfast, lunch, and supper, and dinner. Yes, yes.