COURTESY OF BALDWIN HIGH SCHOOL Junior Derek Hondo, in foreground, is among the students who buy lunch from the cafeteria for $1. This particular day's lunch included milk, Spanish rice and a burrito. Baldwin High's cafeteria has not turned a profit in three years due to fewer students buying lunch, leading to the recent layoffs of two cafeteria workers.

Victual reality

Baldwin’s cafeteria struggles as
fewer students eat school lunches

Students crowd the hallway by the cafeteria every day during lunch. The cafeteria lines are often long and seating is usually limited. No one would suspect that the cafeteria has a low lunch count or that it is not making profits, but this has been a growing problem for the past three years and it is threatening to affect students.

Baldwin High School Name: Baldwin Courier Faculty adviser: Linda Coleon Editor: Kara Myers Address 1650 Kaahumanu Ave., Wailuku, HI 96793 Principal Stephen Yamada Nickname Bears School colors Maroon and blue Enrollment 1,571

Marcella Holokai, Baldwin High's cafeteria manager who has been at the school for five years, has already dismissed two workers because of the loss of revenue and low number of students eating lunch.

Without the extra staff workers, it becomes even more difficult to prepare food, hand out lunches, prevent students from cutting in line and clean the kitchen. For students, this means longer lines and a shorter lunch recess, and this often makes buying a school lunch even less appealing.

Sometimes students do not have required identification cards, or they have not made payment toward their lunch accounts. Last year, Baldwin joined other schools statewide in collecting lunch money from student accounts. Parents or students make payments to their lunch accounts, and when students buy lunch, that amount is deducted from their account.

The identification cards have bar codes that identifies the students and debits the account. Students and faculty previously paid cash daily, and more people ate school lunches.

"Lot of kids forget their IDs," Holokai said. " The whole system is a bit of a problem because they aren't used to it."

But some students are just unhappy with the food.

"I don't like how they use generic rice now," junior Hyeri Kim says. "They should make their food more tasteful. They should serve so we choose what we want."

Creating suitable lunches is extremely difficult. The saimin and canned juices that students used to enjoy were banned this year because of high salt, sugar and calories.

The cafeteria must also work with a limited budget and what the federal government also provides.

"Some students don't understand how the system works, and they don't understand that a lot of things we do is regulated," Holokai says. "I just want the students to know that we are doing our best here."

While the cafeteria is constantly adjusting seasonings and working on the presentation, many students are pleased with the lunches.

Junior Brett Ueno's favorite lunches include the kalua pork with spinach and the meat loaf.

Junior Bree-Ann Tamaye says she would gladly trade her home lunch for a plate of the school's spaghetti, and even Kim often enjoys eating at the cafeteria.

"I love their chicken and the tops of their bread, and I like how they sell water," Kim says.

Many students may think the walk to the cafeteria is too far, but they can have a good lunch at a price unavailable anywhere. To encourage students to go to the cafeteria, the school's leadership committee held two events in September to draw a larger crowd towards the cafeteria. The Krispy Kreme donut contest and Gatorade drinking contest have already been held, but there are more events planned.

Student government vice president Jennifer Matsumoto does not understand why more students are not school lunches.

"It's a deal," Matsumoto says. "$1 for a lunch and 50 cents for a bottle of water. Tell me, where can you find a deal like that?"

New VP sets
great expectations
for students

Baldwin's new vice principal, Mary Auvil, has come all the way from the intermediate school of Honokaa on the Big Island.

"Baldwin High School is the best school I have been to yet," Auvil said. "It's great! The students are really good students. They attend their classes. They're polite and the atmosphere is clean."

Auvil has two children and decided to move to Maui when her youngest went to college. She also has asthma and living in Honokaa made it worse.

Auvil has been a vice principal for three years now. Before that, she was a special education teacher.

"I loved being a special education teacher because I love to meet children's needs individually. The classes are smaller and you really get to know them as their own person."

Auvil also loves working at Baldwin because she is involved with the special education program.

To become a vice principal, a person must keep the big picture in mind, but also stay focused. Administrators must be able to work with a wide range of people and be able to handle them all.

"I have always been able to work with any type of person," Auvil says. "If someone couldn't handle a person because the person was too difficult, I would take him or her on. I really can handle any kind of person."

When she was younger, Auvil never really gave any thought to being a vice principal or being a teacher.

"That's the big joke in the family," Auvil says. "I didn't particularly care for school. My parents always got calls from my teachers because I had an attitude problem. So when students come in here and are having a hard time with school, I can really relate to them."

Auvil has great expectations for Baldwin students. She believes students can pass the high school assessment testing. She believes Baldwin can become a Blue Ribbon school and thinks it can be the No. 1 school in Hawaii in the next three to five years.

"This is an excellent school," Auvil says. "We just need to put some things in their places. There are so many pockets of excellence. If we can bring them all together, we will be great!"

What interesting book
did you read during
the summer?

Cody Alo
Freshman
"'The Hobbit' was interesting because it was adventurous and like a fantasy world."

Shauna AhYen
Freshman
"'A Walk to Remember' was interesting because it was a touching love story."

Bree Aguinaldo
Sophomore
"'Bridges of Madison County' by James Waller was very romantic and the writer was in-depth in showing how Francesca felt about Robert Kincaid."

Jordan Helle
Sophomore
"'Travels with Charley' by John Steinbeck was interesting. I like Steinbeck's writing with his descriptions of traveling around our country."

Aleina Constantino
Junior
"I liked 'Don't Kiss Me Now' because it related to teen issues about death and

relationships."