Throughout this 2015-2016 school year Steinbrenner has seen new faces in the Guidance office (George Dovin), and in the Administration (Marian Coleman). Now our school is seeing yet another new face, but this time in the cafeteria.
Since the Monday after Spring Break, March 28, Mitchell Smithey has become the school’s lunchroom manager, being the one that is in charge of everything behind the scenes and in front of his business, the cafeteria business. Before Steinbrenner though, Smithey worked in many other school cafeterias. His student nutrition journey took him through Plant High School and Oak Grove Elementary both as the manager of the cafeteria. Then he was also a production manager, which is similar to a assistant manager, at Alonso High School.
Smitthey has been in the food business for 28 years now, with him starting when he was 15 years old. He never saw himself being in this position though. Like most people, he had the stigma of the title, The Lunch Lady. But while he was working in Lutz in a classroom, the lunchroom manager knew about his culinary background so she kept trying to push him into the school lunch business. He just didn’t want to become a “Lunch Lady” though. As she kept pushing, he looked more into it and wanted to get out of the classroom and back into cooking. Once he finally took her idea, he didn’t see it as being a Lunch Lady anymore but as a full fledged restaurant with his clientele just being students.
“I’ll put this kitchen up against a lot of restaurants and we’d come ahead,” said Mr. Smitthey.
Some of Mr. Smitthey’s ideas for our school’s student nutrition include, “Have your regular school lunch items, but I want to try and increase what we offer so we have more choices for our students; I want our students, when they think of lunch and breakfast, to think of coming here first instead of bringing it from home. I believe it’s even cheaper from what I can do here than what they can bring from home,” said Mr. Smitthey.
Smitthey has already brought Steinbrenner the famous “Chicken Sliders” which students have compared to Chick Fil A’s Chicken Mini’s for breakfast, and has brought back a student favorite, the iced coffee.
Now his next project for student interest in school lunch is probably going to happen toward the end of May, which will be his “Hot Choice Bar”, similar to the salad bar, where students can pick their base, then their protein and toppings like you would at a Chipotle. Sadly though, the seniors will be gone by the time this bar will open.
Goal wise, Smitthey wants to integrate the cafeteria into the culture of the school. He wants to increase the persona of the cafeteria to be more of a gathering place, for where students can relax, spend time with friends, and eat, like you would at any other restaurant or party.
Fernando Mallicote// Staff Writer
