BVSD Staff Profile: All in the family: Identical Twins hold the same jobs as kitchen leads at Horizons & Sanchez

Coral Barnett and Carolyn Menees are identical twins, can you tell? And both are kitchen satellite leads (KSLs) at schools in BVSD. Coral has run the kitchen at Sanchez for two years, and Carolyn has done the same at Horizons K-8 for 8 years. Their younger sister Kelli Quimby is also a Food Services Assistant Floater (FSA) who occasionally helps in both of her sister’s kitchens.

What brought this family to BVSD? A love for serving kids, a pride in their work, and most importantly the feeling of support and camaraderie they feel with the BVSD food services staff.

Growing up Twinning

Coral and Carolyn grew up in the small town of Aberdeen Washington where their family owned and operated a farm and their dad ran a sheet metal business. When asked what it was like growing up in Washington they both replied as most Washingtonites do: “Rainy”, they said.

While in the same school, they were mostly in different classes and chose different activities away from home. Carolyn played sports (volleyball and softball) and Coral showed quarter horses in 4H.

They had to pitch in at the family farm, helping their parents with farm chores, caring for the horses, cows and chickens. With their younger sister Kelli and two older brothers, it was a full house.

“We spent our whole childhood together in a small town until we were 18 and then we both looked at each other like we’ve gotta get outta here,” laughed Carolyn. 

After high school the sisters both decided to attend the International Air Academy, a trade school to learn skills needed for positions with the airlines with a promise of travel and exposure to new places. Afterward, Coral ended up with a position in Texas and Carolyn headed to Los Angeles, where they worked the same job as ticket and gate agents.

“We wanted a bigger life than our small town could offer, so even when we got placed in different cities through our travels we still got to take a few trips together,” said Coral.

Eventually marriages and jobs brought them both back to Westminster Colorado. 

“I always knew we’d want to raise our kids together someday,” said Carolyn. 

From Broomfield High mom to BVSD employee

The first of the sisters to work for BVSD was Carolyn, who after being a stay-at-home mom for 16 years, was interested in doing something new that still matched her daughter’s school schedule. With a student at Broomfield High, she kept getting emails from the district about the need for food services staff. 

Carolyn had spent many hours volunteering in a lunchroom during her daughter’s elementary years, so had plenty of experience with the pace and demands of a school cafeteria.

“I met with Sarah Acker (the Hiring/Training Manager for Food Services) and got hired on the spot as a food services assistant,” said Carolyn.

She started at Superior Elementary, then became a KSL floater and saw an opening at Horizons K-8. “I came to see the school and felt like it would be a good match for me and it has been”. She’s stayed there for the past 8 years, becoming the kitchen satellite lead for the school.

Carolyn suggested her sister Coral join the same district, she was a former Jeffco School District employee in food services and made the jump. Coral began as a food service assistant at Sanchez Elementary, served as a KSL floater for a bit, then joined as the KSL at Monarch PK-8 for 7 years before landing in her current role as the KSL back at Sanchez.

Coral has been running the kitchen at Sanchez for almost 2 years now and has a soft spot for her very connected Sanchez school community.

“Everyone is so wonderful there, I have a good team, there’s great staff and we have a lot of students and even teachers that eat our meals every day,” said Coral and Carolyn agrees she has the same supportive staff at Horizons K8.

The demands of being a kitchen lead and the perks of your sister having the same job

Kitchen satellite leads hold a lot of responsibility, they are the managers of the school’s kitchen, in charge of ordering the food, monitoring and reducing food waste as much as possible, ordering supplies, and overseeing the staff.

How do they know how much food to order each week? 

“You just get to know your school,” says Coral. “It’s a guessing game, there’s not always daily lunch counts but you know what’s popular and you can see how things did last year or how popular a meal was last month. We order three weeks in advance, so right now we’re already ordering for the first week of January.”

Carolyn says constant planning when running a kitchen is key, “you’ve got to keep the energy up, make sure your orders are on point, maintain good food quality in your kitchen, keep it all warm between classes and always have to be looking ahead for the day or the week.”

However, having a twin sister in the same job has an extra perk. In addition to their District managers support, they have each other to bounce ideas off of and to compare notes. 

“A buddy support system,” Carolyn calls it. “When we have a quick question or want to see what the other is doing, we can reach out and it helps us know ‘Hey what are you doing for this week, or how did that go at your school?”.  

Effectively staffing a kitchen is one of the most important parts of the job. 

“It’s important to find steady, hard working people that are committed to the work we do in our school kitchens,” said Coral. “They’ve gotta be able to multitask, and there’s always something to do — no standing around in a kitchen — it’s very fast-paced and it takes a while to get used to it.”

The twins reflect to say they must be somewhat inclined to be active at work as they’ve always chosen careers on their feet, filled with plenty to do.

Free meals dramatically changed the kitchen workload

Before meals were free in BVSD, Horizons K-8 was a two-person kitchen and now requires three.

“It’s sometimes double the work with so much more participation,” says Carolyn. “But the important thing is no kid is going hungry.”

Coral’s kitchen at Sanchez has also seen a large increase in meal participation and 240 students also eat breakfast at the school daily.

“It’s a busy place, but you feed off the kids' energy and how excited they get for their favorite lunches.”

And they agree on the most popular lunches at both schools. 

“Nacho day and Hamburger day,” they both echoed. They say Hamburger and taco days are a lot of prep as the kitchen individually assembles each one (often more than 200 in a lunch period).

Feeling appreciated as BVSD employees

“We love our jobs,” says Carolyn. “And I mean that.”

“Our district managers are so supportive of us, they treat us so well. They never ignore us, and are always there to help and tell us what a good job we’re doing, which goes a long way in a busy job.”

Coral shared she feels appreciated by the food services team and from her school. “My principal, teachers and paras are always including my team and trying to help us however they can. I feel like they really include us.”

They both say they feel pride working for BVSD for its outstanding reputation as a national leader in school food.

Both sisters worked in the culinary center during the pandemic, “it's really state-of-the-art.”

“The reputation of the district, the farm tours we get to take every year during training to see local produce and meet our farmers — it gives us all pride and purpose in what we’re doing,” said Carolyn.

They also are a fan of a fellow Carolyn, BVSD’s Food Services director Chef Carolyn Villa. 

“She’s so approachable and kind, we can ask her anything and she makes us all feel a part of the larger team,” says Carolyn.

Here for the long haul

Both Coral and Carolyn say they plan to work for BVSD until retirement.

“My favorite part of the job has to be seeing the kids grow and change,” says Carolyn. “Having been at Horizons for 8 years I’ve seen kinders grow up to leave for high school and that’s a special part of the job.”

With their own kids now grown with kids of their own, the sisters still keep everyone connected between their homes in Thornton and Westminster. 

“We just spent Thanksgiving together, and we’ll see each other on Christmas Eve,” said Coral. “A perk of having the same work and holiday schedule.”