Twin sisters serve Phenix City students as cafeteria managers at Central, Lakewood

The first day she came to work at a school cafeteria in Phenix City, Linda Averett was handed a recipe for coleslaw and told to “have at it.”

And she was put on a time limit.

Not long out of high school, the young woman previously had not done much food preparation, and the work was difficult.

“But I loved the children and could not leave,” she said.

Today, Averett is the cafeteria manager at Central High School in Phenix City. She has been serving meals with the Phenix City School District for 40 years.

And she is not the only family member who is a well-known face in the system. Her twin sister Brenda Seldon has been with the district for 30 years and is cafeteria manager at Lakewood Elementary.

Brindlea Griffin is director of child nutrition and health services for the Phenix City School District. She feels having the twins as cafeteria managers is special.

“They have such a great work ethic, and their wisdom is invaluable,” Griffin said.

The 59-year-old sisters were born and raised in Phenix City. Seldon is 10 minutes older. The daughters of a worker at Tom’s Foods are both Central High graduates.

When Averett began working in the school system, she was married and living with her husband’s grandmother.

“We needed another paycheck to get out, and I wanted to get out,” she recalled.

So she went to work at South Girard and walked more than two miles to work.

As for Seldon, she had worked at the restaurant in Kirven’s Department Store and as a shift leader at Pizza Hut.

“I did not get to spend enough time with my family at that job, so I joined the school district,” Seldon said.

They say there has been quite a bit of change in school cafeterias.

“We used to make everything from scratch. There were biscuits, peach cobbler. Just so much to do,” Averett said.

But now much of what is served comes frozen.

“We have modern ovens which we can leave food cooking overnight,” Averett said.

“We used to have notebooks in which we kept inventory, writing everything down, Now, it is all computerized,” Seldon said.

She tells new workers, “y’all have it so good.”

There is at least one item still made from scratch: holiday dressing.

“We have got to do that,” Averett said.

The sisters said nothing is fried. Sodium is kept to a minimum. Only whole grains are used.

“It is healthy but still tastes good,” Seldon said, smiling.

Some children will balk at trying some items, saying it is nasty.

“I tell them they can’t say it is nasty until they try it,” Averett said.

Taco Tuesday and Pizza Friday are the most popular days, the sisters said.

It still takes a great effort to get the children fed.

In the 2016-17 school year, the school district had 6,877 students.

Every Phenix City student is eligible for a free breakfast.

Work begins before sunrise.

At Central High, those in after-school activities, such as football, get a “Dinner at the Bell” meal following school, three days a week from August to December.

And the work does not end when summer break comes. Working with Parks & Recreation at 11 sites, more than 28,000 meals were served in seven weeks this summer.

The sisters feel their work is important.

“A child can’t learn if he or she is hungry. They just can’t,” Averett said.

They try to teach children about good nutrition.

“What we do is education,” Averett said.

“It is still a lot of hard work. You have to have a real passion for children to do it and we both have that passion,” Seldon said

Not many students know the managers by name. “I will have students point to me somewhere and tell their parent, ‘that’s my lunch lady,’ and I like that,” Averett said.

Though the managers know few students by name, they say that on occasion someone who graduated years ago will see them, come up to them and say “I remember how you took good care of me.”

“They’ll give me a hug,” Averett said. “I love those hugs.”

This story was originally published August 19, 2017 at 6:17 AM with the headline "Twin sisters serve Phenix City students as cafeteria managers at Central, Lakewood."