A Day in the Life of Gocio Elementary Food Service Manager Diana Losier

Diana Losier with students
Image: Robert Castro
Food services manager Diana Losier and her team of six serve lunch to 530 students at Gocio Elementary School every day in addition to offering breakfast to 300 and preparing supper for students who stay after the school day. Some school lunch programs made headlines recently for shaming students who can’t pay, but Losier says that’s not true at Gocio, where 81 percent of students receive a free lunch and another 7 percent pay a discounted rate. “Nobody knows who’s on free or reduced lunch except for me,” she emphasizes. Losier loves her work, especially the contact with the kids. “I don’t think people realize how awesome this job is,” she says.

Image: Robert Castro
5:17 a.m. “I’m there at 6 a.m. every morning, so I’m up by 5:10. I’m making coffee. That’s my routine. When I get to work, there’s nobody else in the school.”

Image: Robert Castro
7:32 a.m. “We try to give kids what they like. We were doing steamed squash, but now we’re sautéing or baking it and they like it better. If they could eat pizza every day, they would.”

Image: Robert Castro
8:43 a.m. “I’m going over rules about food safety, hand-washing and handling chemicals. Everybody has to have so many hours of training."

Image: Robert Castro
11:06 a.m. “I don’t run the register, so I don’t get to know the kids’ names, but when I see a child at Walmart they come up and say hello. It helps that I get to see them at their favorite time of day.”

Image: Robert Castro
12:24 p.m. “Staffers can eat in the cafeteria, too. For $3.50, it’s a really good deal. It’s nacho day, which is popular. Everything is homemade and delicious.”

Image: Robert Castro
1:59 p.m. “At the end of the day, I count all the money, figure out how many meals we served. We get audited, so everything has to be on paper.”

Image: Robert Castro
3:09 p.m. “My grandchildren go to Liberty Baptist Academy, which is near my house, so sometimes I get to pick them up. It’s fun for them.”

Image: Robert Castro
4:06 p.m. “On Thursdays, my granddaughter, Sallon, practices the piano. I don’t play, but I just help make sure she’s doing it the way she’s supposed to.”

Image: Robert Castro
5:52 p.m. “I don’t feel like cooking when I get home, and now that my kids are grown, I don’t need to fix suppers. I’m eating pizza at Rico’s with my husband and my daughter and her family.”