By Josh LaBella
Voice Reporter
Meg Kingston said walking into the new kitchen at West Haven High School on the first day of school this week was like walking downstairs to see the presents under the tree on Christmas morning for herself and her staff.
Kingston is the food service director for Sodexo in West Haven. Sodexo is the food services and management company which run the cafeterias in the city’s public schools. She said before she started working for Sodexo she worked as a clinical dietitian in hospitals and nursing homes.
“I ended up leaving the clinical end and coming here because I got laid off at St. Raphael’s,” said Kingston. “There was an ad in the paper for school lunch and I said, ‘Oh, that doesn’t sound bad.’ Not knowing that would end up having so much passion for it.”
Kingston said she has degrees in nutrition and business which fit well with the demands of the job. She said she started off in a small school district and worked her way to bigger ones; eventually getting the job in West Haven – her home town.
When Kingston got up at 4:30 Tuesday morning she said she was “pumped” for the first day of school. She said she gets an adrenaline rush from it. The director manages a staff of 60 people throughout the 10 schools they serve in the district.
Kingston said she has worked for Sodexo in municipalities varying in size and demographics. She said the kids are good no matter where she has been. She attributes her good relationship with students to the fact that she gives them the respect they are due.
“I want them happy,” said Kingston. “I want them to have a good experience. I just had my opening meeting the other day and I said, ‘If you’re coming into these buildings this week and you’ve got a bad attitude – turn around and walk out.”
According to Kingston, there can be a stereotype of grump old lunch ladies working in school cafeterias and she does not want to perpetuate it. She added that some students have had terrible mornings and if her staff adds to that it can lead to the child having a bad day.
“If that were your child, how would you feel?” said Kingston.
She said people tell her she “turned the program around” in West Haven. She acknowledges the program was “bad” when she entered the position 7 years ago.
“I remember opening the freezer and saying ‘I’m not serving any of this food,’” said Kingston. “I stood in the parking lot and called (Superintendent of Schools) Neil [Cavallaro] and said ‘There’s not one item I want to serve in there. Can we just get rid of it and start off with zero inventory?’”
Kingston said Cavallaro agreed and they started fresh. She said when she got into her position the food services in West Haven had a deficit of $300,000. The director said all it took to turn it around was serving good food the students would like.
“You serve good food,” said Kingston. “You watch your waste. You make sure that you’re not overordering and you visit the schools and make sure they’re doing what they need to do — those types of things.”
Kingston said waste can be a big issue in the food service industry. For her, it’s an issue of sustainability. She said she has implemented sets of protocol to account for how much food is being used and wasted.
She said she works with students to see what they want on the menu and, as long as it is within USDA guidelines, serves it to them. She said it also helps that her staff have a lot of passion for their work.
“I’m really blessed with my staff,” said Kingston. “They’re good people. Their hearts are in the right place. That makes my job so much easier.”