After 34 Years, WCS Food Services Director Retiring At Year’s End
November 12, 2021 at 11:56 p.m.
After 34 Years, WCS Food Services Director Retiring At Year’s End
By Jackie Gorski-
“I think it’s time,” Franks said.
A retirement celebration honoring Franks will be at the WCS Central Office from 2 to 4 p.m. Dec. 3.
She had a history of food service before joining WCS.
Franks said she has always had an interest in food service and has been in the industry since she was 12. She started working with her dad at charity organizations to fix food. As she progressed, she worked in restaurants.
After a while, Franks said she decided she wanted some management experience and worked at Ponderosa Steaks for 10 to 12 years. When she came to Warsaw, she managed Ponderosa Steaks, opening the location up. She liked the staff at the restaurant, but the hours were a bit long for a family.
After having three children, Franks said she decided to quit working evenings and weekends, and the job as the food service director was the perfect job.
The previous food services director went to a different position. WCS initially hired Franks as a consultant to help sort some things out in 1988. After six weeks, Franks was offered the director position.
She said she really liked what she was doing and liked the kids and being in the same building. Her office used to be off the study hall at Warsaw Community High School before it was moved to the basement of the central office.
She said the primary goal of her department is to feed students at all eight elementary schools, two middle schools and WCHS.
“That’s the part that’s probably been the most rewarding is that we get to work with kids,” Franks said.
The department tries to create dishes and come up with menu plans the students will like and the USDA approves.
“There’s a lot of compliance that we have to maintain as far as our program regulations and things like that,” Franks said. Some of the regulations include the food services department doing nutritional analysis of all the menus according to grade levels.
Franks talked about the changes she has seen in her position.
“When I first started, we only served lunch. Now, we serve lunch, we serve breakfast, we serve after-school snacks, we do summer meals. That’s a big change in itself compared to what we used to do, where we had lunch and that’s all we had to worry about,” Franks said.
Every kitchen used to make their own menu, which were written out on pieces of paper.
As regulations became stricter, Franks said the department decided to come together and have one standard menu, “at least for the standard grade-level.” The menus are all done on a computer now and are nutritionally analyzed through a program it uses.
Technology has changed during Franks’ tenure.
“When I started, there was nothing. I didn’t have a computer. We didn’t have email. There was no such thing as the internet in schools. So I had a telephone on my desk and a filing cabinet and that’s pretty much it,” she said. It was just getting out there and figure out what was going on. “If you didn’t know what to do with the state, you’d have to get on the phone with them. So nothing was done electronically at all.”
Compliance is another big change Franks said she has seen. When she first started, she said, “We had, I think, 23 policy memos I had to worry about to make sure I understood as far as rules and regulations. Now, there’s over 1,500. So there’s always some kind of compliance that you have to keep up on and make sure you’re maintaining focus on.”
Regulations include what kind of snacks the school corporation can and cannot have and what time of day they can sell the snacks.
Franks oversees 60 employees. The department normally has 80 employees. The department is running short due to COVID, she said, noting the food services employees work very hard to do the work of 80 people. The Food Services Department serves approximately 6,000 meals a day five days a week during the school year. Meals during summer school varies, she said.
The one thing Franks said she is proud of is her staff. The 60 people the department does have aren’t afraid to work.
“And ever since COVID, they have not missed a beat,” she said.
When WCS closed schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 for distance learning, Franks said the food services department was making food for students the next school day and “haven’t missed a day.”
She said another thing she is proud of in her department is every one of the food service employees have a school nutrition association level 1 certificate, which not something every school corporation has. Every year they have training in nutrition and food safety to just get certified and food services employees have to keep that up. It helps to keep meals safe and nutritious.
When asked what she thought the importance of her job and the food service department was, Franks said, “A hungry child can’t learn.”
She said the department’s job is to help parents keep students fed. The less hungry the child is, the less trips there are to the nurse, less disruption in class and the better thinking power the student has.
In October, the Warsaw School Board approved Stacie Light, assistant director of food and nutrition services, to take over Franks’ position effective Nov. 1. Franks said that Light already knows a lot of things about the job, but there is some training to make sure Light knows everything she needs to and make sure the transition goes smoothly. It will also give the school corporation enough time to find Light’s replacement as assistant director.
Franks said she is leaving the position in great hands.
When asked what her plans are for after she retires, Franks said her husband is a farmer and he said he needs a tractor driver, so she’ll probably help him out a little bit on the farm.
She’s also a grandmother, expecting her ninth grandchild in December, and she plans on spending time with her grandchildren.
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“I think it’s time,” Franks said.
A retirement celebration honoring Franks will be at the WCS Central Office from 2 to 4 p.m. Dec. 3.
She had a history of food service before joining WCS.
Franks said she has always had an interest in food service and has been in the industry since she was 12. She started working with her dad at charity organizations to fix food. As she progressed, she worked in restaurants.
After a while, Franks said she decided she wanted some management experience and worked at Ponderosa Steaks for 10 to 12 years. When she came to Warsaw, she managed Ponderosa Steaks, opening the location up. She liked the staff at the restaurant, but the hours were a bit long for a family.
After having three children, Franks said she decided to quit working evenings and weekends, and the job as the food service director was the perfect job.
The previous food services director went to a different position. WCS initially hired Franks as a consultant to help sort some things out in 1988. After six weeks, Franks was offered the director position.
She said she really liked what she was doing and liked the kids and being in the same building. Her office used to be off the study hall at Warsaw Community High School before it was moved to the basement of the central office.
She said the primary goal of her department is to feed students at all eight elementary schools, two middle schools and WCHS.
“That’s the part that’s probably been the most rewarding is that we get to work with kids,” Franks said.
The department tries to create dishes and come up with menu plans the students will like and the USDA approves.
“There’s a lot of compliance that we have to maintain as far as our program regulations and things like that,” Franks said. Some of the regulations include the food services department doing nutritional analysis of all the menus according to grade levels.
Franks talked about the changes she has seen in her position.
“When I first started, we only served lunch. Now, we serve lunch, we serve breakfast, we serve after-school snacks, we do summer meals. That’s a big change in itself compared to what we used to do, where we had lunch and that’s all we had to worry about,” Franks said.
Every kitchen used to make their own menu, which were written out on pieces of paper.
As regulations became stricter, Franks said the department decided to come together and have one standard menu, “at least for the standard grade-level.” The menus are all done on a computer now and are nutritionally analyzed through a program it uses.
Technology has changed during Franks’ tenure.
“When I started, there was nothing. I didn’t have a computer. We didn’t have email. There was no such thing as the internet in schools. So I had a telephone on my desk and a filing cabinet and that’s pretty much it,” she said. It was just getting out there and figure out what was going on. “If you didn’t know what to do with the state, you’d have to get on the phone with them. So nothing was done electronically at all.”
Compliance is another big change Franks said she has seen. When she first started, she said, “We had, I think, 23 policy memos I had to worry about to make sure I understood as far as rules and regulations. Now, there’s over 1,500. So there’s always some kind of compliance that you have to keep up on and make sure you’re maintaining focus on.”
Regulations include what kind of snacks the school corporation can and cannot have and what time of day they can sell the snacks.
Franks oversees 60 employees. The department normally has 80 employees. The department is running short due to COVID, she said, noting the food services employees work very hard to do the work of 80 people. The Food Services Department serves approximately 6,000 meals a day five days a week during the school year. Meals during summer school varies, she said.
The one thing Franks said she is proud of is her staff. The 60 people the department does have aren’t afraid to work.
“And ever since COVID, they have not missed a beat,” she said.
When WCS closed schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 for distance learning, Franks said the food services department was making food for students the next school day and “haven’t missed a day.”
She said another thing she is proud of in her department is every one of the food service employees have a school nutrition association level 1 certificate, which not something every school corporation has. Every year they have training in nutrition and food safety to just get certified and food services employees have to keep that up. It helps to keep meals safe and nutritious.
When asked what she thought the importance of her job and the food service department was, Franks said, “A hungry child can’t learn.”
She said the department’s job is to help parents keep students fed. The less hungry the child is, the less trips there are to the nurse, less disruption in class and the better thinking power the student has.
In October, the Warsaw School Board approved Stacie Light, assistant director of food and nutrition services, to take over Franks’ position effective Nov. 1. Franks said that Light already knows a lot of things about the job, but there is some training to make sure Light knows everything she needs to and make sure the transition goes smoothly. It will also give the school corporation enough time to find Light’s replacement as assistant director.
Franks said she is leaving the position in great hands.
When asked what her plans are for after she retires, Franks said her husband is a farmer and he said he needs a tractor driver, so she’ll probably help him out a little bit on the farm.
She’s also a grandmother, expecting her ninth grandchild in December, and she plans on spending time with her grandchildren.
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