so today is going to be more of a rambling/griping type post. So here lately, I have gotten bit by the "I want to be a SAHM (stay at home mom) bug" and I've been fighting through it. BUT, there have been some instances happen at work the last few weeks that have REALLY tested my patience & resolve to just not up and quit. I know I can't do that, wouldn't do that is more like it, but today I just need to get it all out so I can get back to whatever it is I'm doing.
We have a big feast coming up, the school's annual Thanksgiving Feast, for the community. It has been run differently every year (so I've been told) and so administration has their ideas about how they want it to run. Fine & Great.. then just TELL me how you'd like to do it, please don't ask my opinion then shut it down. It's not like this is my first rodeo. This is what I make my living doing. This is what I went to school for (not really) and have worked almost 10 years doing, the catering aspect of it.. not the school service part. I feel very much like I am just a pawn, a face, a puppet. I've not been able to have control over my own kitchens.
I was given the task at the beginning of the year to cut out budget WAY down.. 2 years ago they came in -$80,000 & last year cut that back to -$40,000 - this year they want to break even!! BUT - they've tied my hands. They want to serve a $5.00 meal for $2.75 & you CAN NOT MAKE MONEY DOING THAT. We are not on the school lunch program, which means that we get to make up our own menus and such, BUT we don't get any $$ from the government for our food. So we have to be completely self sufficient. I have tried cutting back as far as I can go and we are still coming in -$1200 a month. Last week, I made the decision to pull the milk from the lunch service. We would only serve milk @ breakfast (it currently costs us $700 a month & we don't make anything off of it) and the students still have a choice of juice, water, or kool-aid for lunch & it would save us roughly $400 a month - well the elementary got wind of this and essentially threw a hissy fit about their "babies not getting milk". 1. IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS HOW I RUN MY BUSINESS - you have no idea the kind of pressure I am under to get this budget down. 2. IF YOU DON'T MAKE A BIG DEAL OF IT, THEN THE KIDS WON'T MAKE A BIG DEAL OF IT!!!!! if you don't know anything about business or food OR BOTH then stay the hell out of my kitchen. Seriously. So, needless to say, I got a call from admin this morning saying we have to resume our "milk sales" - I hadn't even pulled the milk yet.. they didn't even give it a chance before they started bitching. Sorry for the language, I'm THAT irritated today.
So.. I can't make food cuts, I can't make beverage cuts.. therefore I can't make budge cuts. simple enough? I'm keeping track of everything so hopefully at the end of the year when we are WAY over budget I can present my nice little notebook to the board stating just this. Let me have the kitchens, really have them, without anyone else's input, and the budget will balance OR pony up more money for the food. Either way, today I realized that this "job" isn't a "job" for me, it is simply to put into place what the admin wants. I don't know if I can do that. I know I "can" do that, but I am miserable. I work here because the hours are good & I get summers & holiday's off - I am a paper pusher, not a chef, not even a cook!! I know I should shut up & be happy with a decent pay check & I am trying, I REALLY REALLY am - that's one reason I am writing. Maybe if I get it out in the open then I can see this job for what it is, the means to an end. One day I will be able to be a SAHM, this is just a filler until I can get there.. right?
-Sara
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