Patricia Southard is a proud mother of four, loves to go on long drives, and ecstatically enjoys the beach. She is also one of Selma High School’s newest diligent food-serving staff members. She arrived two weeks ago and is already fitting in seamlessly. This comes as no surprise since she has worked in the food industry before.
“I’ve actually worked in food service for almost six years. I worked before at the Sanger Unified School District. I was working in their kitchen up until just recently,” Patricia shared.
Although her job in Sanger was quite different, transporting food to different schools, she finds the quick pace and diverse tasks of managing the stations fun, if somewhat of a challenge.
“You have to be super quick and jump from one task to the next, so time management is definitely one of the challenges,” she said.
Most of all, Patricia enjoys being able to make a difference in the lives of the kids she serves every day. In her position, Patricia has the opportunity to be directly involved in how their day goes.
“Just being able to impact the kid’s lives, being able to help people, giving them a meal–maybe that’s their only meal of the day–it makes me feel good,” she said.
Patricia came to work at Selma because of an opportunity that presented itself that benefitted her and her kids. She was thrilled to find such a welcoming environment that aligned with her goals.
“It has been positive, the people here are really friendly and everyone is hard-working,” Patricia enthused. “We work together to get everything done, it’s nice to work with a team.”
If you ever see her, consider giving a warm welcome to one of our newest Bears.
