By Anna Guido
Enquirer contributor

Roger Bacon High School cafeteria workers Shirley Hausfeld (left) and Mary Clare Freese with some cookies and apple dumplings they baked for students. (Michael E. Keating photo)

ST. BERNARD - It's a "mashed potatoes day'' at Roger Bacon High School and the cafeteria line is jammed.

Not many students or staff pass through the line without taking at least one helping of the famous side dish made by longtime cafeteria worker Shirley Hausfeld.

Senior Morris Jordan, 17, of Northside said the mashed 'taters are tops.

"They're the best thing they've got here, and I think that's why some students come (to school) here," he said, in all seriousness.

The potatoes, soups, salads, cheesecakes and other homemade heartwarming foods are served to students by kitchen staff "as if they were serving their own kids," said religion teacher Greg Rose.

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Hausfeld, 68, and Mary Clare Freese, 72, are pillars of the school. Hausfeld, a 25-year-employee, has worked in the cafeteria of the co-ed parochial high school long enough to see her seven children and some of her grandchildren graduate.

Hausfeld cooks and manages the kitchen. Freese, who started eight years before Hausfeld, works on the line, serving food and sweetly demanding the magic words - "please and thank you'' - from hungry students.

Freese, a mother of three, has interesting stories of her own about students and cafeteria days gone by. "It used to be quiet," she said. "Then when the girls came in (1985) - Oh, boy!"

Freese works 6 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Friday. She said some people think she's crazy for keeping such a work schedule at her age.

"I just love the kids and work keeps you going," she said.

Longtime and newly hired teachers at Roger Bacon are on the same page when it comes to the cafeteria and its staff.

English teacher and assistant wrestling coach Bill Stone came to Roger Bacon three years ago. He knows to keep a watchful eye over wrestlers when the cafeteria is serving off-limit favorites - such as mashed potatoes - on match days.

Health teacher Tom Roebel said the good cooking and maternal inclinations of the kitchen staff are great benefits for students.

He said the lunch offerings are nutritionally balanced, and Hausfeld readily tries new items suggested by students and teachers, such as mock turtle soup.

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