22 Aug Humans of Head Start: LaDonna

“In 2002 my daughter went to the Head Start here with Joy Rothdiener, Penni Cole, and Jody McCrickard. Then the 2nd year when she went to Kindergarten they asked me if I wanted to sub and I started in the kitchen. When the new year came the kitchen aide position opened up and I got that in February; then in 2006 our Nutrition Assistant left so I got this job and have been in it ever since. 19 and a half years! Part of what keeps me coming back to work, is all the trainings and Miriam and everyone I work with. I work with some really great people and I really feel like we are a family and I love working with each of them.

Before I started working here, I never knew how to cook anything from scratch. I cooked for my family when I was little, so I cooked, but I never knew how to make anything from scratch. So when I started this job, one of my first meals I had to make biscuits. Scared to death! One of the teachers came in and was like “ok biscuit making 101” and she just kind of blurted everything out and told me how to do it and she was like “remember, don’t roll your dough out too thin, that’s the key.” and it just stuck, something just lit up in me and it was like I want to do more. Then when we moved here, where I have a more professional kitchen, it just lit my fire even more, all I want to do is cook. I really love being in the kitchen, even at home, I’m in the kitchen more than I am anywhere else. I tell my husband that this is the restaurant I’ll never have.

I’m not a perfectionist, because I’m not perfect, but I do have standards, doesn’t always mean you’re going to meet that standard. Anything that I really have to take time to make are the ones I enjoy the most; and I like the challenge of ‘oh my gosh I only have so much time can I get it done in time?’ I like a challenge. The biscuits were a challenge when they took away the shortening, we had to use oil, and I’m not into drop biscuits, I think they’re ugly. They gotta be pretty. That’s what I’ve told all my kitchen aides that I’ve had over the years, is you eat with your eyes first, even little kids, and if it doesn’t look like something that they’d want to put in their mouth they’re not going to eat it.

Now my granddaughter, she’s 14, amazing artist. She loves to cook, and she told me it was because of me. My son in law, he’s really gotten into cooking since they’ve been together, and he’s always calling me and asking me how to cook things. He’s tried things that I never even thought of trying and he’s really doing good, he loves trying new things. I taught him step by step how to make biscuits over the phone, and I was like ‘make sure you don’t roll them out too thin’ and they turned out really good!”

-LaDonna Robbins, Lead Nutrition Assistant