Transition Time

Sam's job with the school's summer meals program officially ended just over a week ago. Now we can (hopefully) look forward to starting work for the fall semester. When that will happen is anybody's guess. 

Normally, when the school's food department transitions from the regular school year to the summer meals program (and vise versa), Sam's supervisor kindly delays his start date for about a week. This gives them time to figure what they're doing before involving Sam.

But this year is a little different. This year, they, like everyone, are dealing with COVID. 

Since the beginning of this ordeal, Sam and the entire school  system's food department have been working out of the Middle School - preparing bagged lunches (and breakfast) to be distributed to various drop points around town. 

This is not all that different than a "normal" summer meal program - except that more people are involved and it's been going on much longer than just a typical summer.

Now, with summer gone and the arrival of the fall semester - and with COVID  still with us - the once-consolidated workforce will, for some reason, be dispatched back to their individual schools. For  Sam, this means back to the High School (hopefully). What the meals program is going to look like when he gets back is ... well, who knows?

Gone, for sure, are the hot lunches and food bars. And with them, gone too is the use of reusable trays, plates and dinnerware. This means, gone is the need to be washing all these items - which was one of Sam's primary jobs. 

Gone too, at least for now, are things like making wraps and sandwiches - two of the tasks Sam would also perform (when he wasn't prepping food or washing dishes).

Sam attended a meeting with all his other coworkers about a week ago. Afterwards, I spoke briefly with his supervisor who told me that she'll be in touch. I neglected to ask when. Though, most likely, if I had, she probably wouldn't have had an answer. 

I imagine the logistics of figuring out how all of this is going to work is beyond challenging. And I imagine that figuring out how Sam will fit into all of this is not exactly anyone's top priority right now - anyone's except mine, that is. 

It's been a week since Sam's meeting - which is usually about how long it is before he gets a call. I suspect this year, it might be a little longer. Maybe even a lot longer. For now, we can only wait and see.