Marilyn Blair Kitchen Manager, Chase Middle School, Spokane

Personal: 51, married with three grown children.

Job duties: Managing the kitchen staff, ordering food, preparing food and manning the cash register at lunch.

Salary: $22,000 a year plus benefits.

Experience: One and one-half years as a kitchen manager; 15 years in food service.

How the job has changed: “There’s not so many gravies made with butter. We have more low-fat items.”

Kids served daily: About 450; about half the students.

Favorite parts of the job: “I like interacting with my co-workers, the students and staff and the challenges of the job, like ordering enough food, but not too much.”

Job goal: “I want my kitchen to be the funnest place in the school, and I hope the kids come to me if they need anything. If the kids don’t have money, I’ll loan it to them. I tell them if they don’t pay me tomorrow, I’ll come to their homeroom and sing.”

Summer job: Teaching kids to play tennis.