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| Ms. Anita, the owner of Baked by Anita. |
DRSS, 10/9/16 - Catering for 400 students in a college dorm room kitchen was Ms. Anita’s first experience with her passion. She would later go on to cater for an entire month before she realized she wanted to do this for a living. Her company, Baked by Anita, started in February 1993, and she began catering for various different companies and events.
However, she was first introduced to the world of school lunches by one of her clients. Ms. Anita said, “One of my clients had a child in a charter school in Cincinnati and asked if I was interested in serving a school because her children were not happy.” She took the offer and began serving the school in 1995. During the summer time, she served a Girl Scouts camp with approximately 300 campers for all three meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). That led her to serving school lunches and recognizing her company’s goal was to provide fun-loving and well-balanced meals in USDA guidelines at the same time.
Interestingly, the name of the company was created because Anita used to bake for most of her catering events. That is how she came up with Baked by Anita. Her business not only serves DRSS students, but also serves Mound Street Academy and Richard Allen Schools (two locations in Dayton and one in Hamilton). The lunch meals are inspired by what the students suggest and what her employees and Ms. Anita observe. For instance, the burrito bowl resembles Chipotle, a fast food restaurant at which many students enjoy to eat. Ms. Anita said, “Anything that resembles fast food seems to go over well.” All of the recipes are tried before they are given to the students. Each month, the company has a meeting to toss around ideas about what to serve the students and how to make the meals more fun. An example is chicken spaghetti. She doesn’t have a favorite meal to serve to the students, but she knows the students really enjoy the nachos, chicken bowl, and cheeseburger casserole. “Things that are very familiar; people tend to really enjoy those,” Ms. Anita stated.
On a typical day, the cooks go in at 6AM to prepare the food, cook the food, and store the food to be delivered to the schools from their main campus in Dayton. After the product is prepared, the cooks put the food into cambrios (industrial plastic containers) or upright warmers. These containers maintain the food for four hours at the proper temperature. The employees load the van with the containers and make sure they have everything they need to serve the meals. They come over to DRSS to unload, get set up, and serve the lunches.
Students enjoy the new school lunches and the people behind the counter, too. Tanijah Finney, an 11th grader at DRSS, stated “You also have freedom of choice.” No longer are students restricted to drinking milk only or having to eat whatever is being served. They are provided with options to put on their burrito bowl and chef salad. Also, students have a choice of juice instead of milk. She believes, “Yes, it is worth your money. I think if the food tastes better, more people would be willing to buy it. In this case, the food does taste better.” Kellyn Borkenhagen, also an 11th grader at DRSS added, “Well, they have a much better taste, seem more prepared, and there is more thought put into it. Also, the lunches seem healthier. Now, there is a fruit provided every day.” Besides the students, employees love working there, too. Damare Reason, who just started working there this year, said, “I love working with Baked by Anita. They make me feel at home and I like cooking, so I fit right in.”
On a final note, Ms. Anita liked the school lunches and liked the lunch people when she was growing up. That is why her company works so hard to provide the students with a good experience. She wants to the students to be happy. As a student at DRSS, I am thankful to have such wonderful lunch providers who care so much about the quality of the food and service.
