Fourth Week

The pantry is my work station this week. We provide the lettuce, cut vegetables, fruit, and dressings for the salads on the cafeteria line. All of the salad ingredients are placed in metal pans, resting on ice, to keep the contents cool enough so bacteria doesn't grow. We refill the pans during lunch, which starts at 10am.
I am working with several men who have lost their jobs at the Camas paper mill, due to downsizing, and are being retrained. They are all interested in learning a new skill, and participate with enthusiasm. Then there are several young people who are on a free ride from the government, and they do as little as possible. Many days they only show up for the free lunch. This is my first exposure to people getting away with that type of behavior. Guess I have been cloistered away from reality for 48 years of working in the medical profession.
Today, the culinary students at my lunch table are a young Hispanic man, a young Black man, and a woman in her 50's from Hong Kong. We are an ethnically diverse group as well.