It's a rough business...
At 10 years old and in fifth grade, my good student status afforded me the privilege of leaving class early to work lunch recess in my elementary school cafeteria, in exchange for a free hot lunch. My first job was manning the “milk cart,” a metal pushcart loaded with single-serve 2% and chocolate milk cartons, which I sold to the 7/8th graders at the picnic benches. I was also the keeper of the ice cream sandwiches in a separate cooler wedged behind me, as if I were able to somehow guard it from the hordes of pre-teens, literally pelting me with nickels and dimes and then grabbing whatever they claimed to have paid for. Often I had no choice but to crouch down behind the cart and hide until the teacher on duty blew her whistle to restore order.
Thankfully the blue-haired cafeteria ladies took pity and moved me to the hot line, where I donned a hairnet, plastic gloves and a portion scoop to plop mashed potatoes on every Melmac tray that passed by me on the assembly line. I had found my calling in foodservice, though it would be another decade until I consciously realized it. All flashbacks aside, I’m proud to offer our plant-based gelato sandwiches from time to time, complete with gluten-free chocolate wafers that don’t taste like cardboard, although to be fair, that would best mimic the original.