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"I like cooking," said Veldheer, left. I was unsure if I wanted to be the school lunch lady, but I thought about it and decided that I wanted to do something with my time.
6:00 AM
Like many retired players, Veldheer has found a new way to use his time.
He spends a lot of time in the kitchen because he has taken up cooking. He's become good at grocery shopping and meal prepping.
He's not a chef, but he's a lunch man.
Veldheer, who was an offensive lineman for five teams including the Arizona Cardinals during an 11-year career through 2020, is in charge of lunch for about 170 preschool students through eighth graders at St. Paul the Apostle School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Veldheer has been cooking an eclectic menu for five days a week for the past four months. The parents are asking if they can come for lunch.
"It looks like a restaurant to me," Morrow said.
Veldheer is a big fan of food. When he was a child, he had to make his own sandwiches if he didn't like what his mom cooked, which led to him trying new ways to stack bread, meat, cheese and other things.
He said he had eaten a lot of dishes. I like a lot of different types of food.
He's taking his experiences with food, including eating a lot as an offensive lineman, and putting it to use to prepare the healthiest, mostnutritious food he can to help children grow and develop.
Morrow said that a well- fueled body creates the best student.
How did he become a lunch man?
A former football player serves lunch at a school.
St. Paul the Apostle was without someone to run their kitchen in early August.
Veldheer was a parent of two children at the school and befriended Morrow, who gave her advice on food and nutrition. He was hired after talking about what to expect in making lunch for a few hundred kids.
"I like cooking," Veldheer told the sports network. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be the school lunch lady, but I thought about it and decided I wanted to do something with my time. It's not a bad gig time-commitment. I'm with my kids. I went for it.
I was not trying to get a job as the lunch man in my later years.
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Morrow smiled when she talked about the fact that Veldheer was serving lunch to the youngest kids at the school. She said that he takes up most of the lunch window.
She said a picture is worth a thousand words. I'm grinning ear-to- ear because I see what I get to see every day and the kids are so comfortable and confident in asking him questions and trying different foods.
It's a testament to who he is as a person and how easy he is to get along with.
He said that the kitchen at the school looked like a professional space with a new range and a French door oven. He brought a Traeger grill and a flat top from home and used the Instant Pot to cook them.
When Veldheer gets to the kitchen, he starts cooking. If he's making something with beans, he'll put them in a pressure cooker and let them set.
He said to set it and forget it.
He starts the main course and sides at the salad bar after he grills the chicken. He has someone who knows how to help in the kitchen. Depending on the complexity of the meal, Veldheer may have a volunteer or two to help, but almost always has a couple to help serve lunch, which sees three groups go through the line from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. More than 300 students eat Veldheer's lunch.
Morrow said it was a phenomenal number.
They are never going to eat that.
Parents are asking if they can come to school to eat lunch.
Molly has three kids at the school and she has been impressed by what Veldeer has done. She was not the only one who was skeptical at first.
When he started, we all got the menu, and we were like, 'He's gonna feed our kids mashed cauliflower and cabbage?' They are not going to eat it. We were like, 'He's crazy.'
We just keep getting more and more impressed. My kids love food.
The school uses an online portal for parents to order food about two weeks before the first day of the month so Veldheer has to make his menu about a month out. Morrow's first menu was a bit of a culture shock. After years of typical school lunches of chicken nuggets, pizza and fries, parents weren't sure about the sustainable nature of Veldheer's vision.
Veldheers top goal is to nourish developing humans and he tries to adhere to a few tenants. Veldheer took an interest in exercise science and nutrition while he was in the NFL.
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He said a lot of kids just eat. A lot of kids get by snacking all the time with just processed crap in the cupboard. If I can just make it my goal to give them one meal, that's good.
Veldheer has limited the amount of seed oils he takes out because they can lead to inflammation and excess simple sugars. He has cinnamon rolls for the last day before winter break and will make cookies once a week.
It's almost impossible to get all the kids to eat the same thing, because one kid loves one thing and the other kid doesn't, and they eat the other thing, so as long as you get all the kids involved.
Veldheer will help the kids along even if they aren't enthusiastic about what they're eating. He wore lederhosen on a day that he served German food and played Hispanic music. He's been known to go to the cafeteria to see if kids like the food.
He'll go to the cafeteria and say, "Alright, everybody, I want you to take a bite of those beans." I made them special for you. Did they do it?
Even though he gets some feedback, Veldheers calls the workfulfilling.
Veldheer said that the kindergarteners are the most brutal. Middle schoolers are awesome. You can't judge the meal by the kids. That would be a bad thing to do. They are wild cards. You don't know how they're going to respond.
