Qualifications? Yessir!

"I wasn't looking to become the school lunch lady, but I figured this was something I could handle."

"I'd eaten meticulously for more than a decade and I thought, 'There is value in being able to cook and provide kids with a good, nutritious lunch."

"...Even then [when as a now-retired NFL offensive lineman at 6-foot-8, weighing 330 pounds] as a big guy, I always tried to eat healthy."

"I knew kids would love it [Korean beef bulgogi]."

"It took a while to capture some trust from the kids. Kindergartners are my toughest critics."

Jared Veldheer, 34, once one of the NFL's "most indispensable players"

 

"Everything he makes is delicious and appreciated by kids and adults alike."

"For him, it's not just cooking -- it's making sure that the food and nutrients students are eating serves them best in the classroom."

Michelle Morrow, school principal, Saint Paul the Apostle Catholic School

The Washington Post

 

He had fame, played the game he enjoyed, and excelled in his mastery of sports, while hauling in tens of millions in salaries playing professional football for the Green Bay Packers, Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders among others. On his retirement from professional sport and looking around for another challenge to his considerable talents, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan, his attention was drawn to a search for a cook-supervisor at the very school his two children attend.

Someone to cook and to serve lunch for 260 students from early kindergarten to eighth graders. He would be top man at his children's school cafeteria, and it appealed to him. A novice perhaps never having cooked professionally, but it's something he does and enjoys. He spent quite a bit of time as a professional athlete, with a focus on nutrition. Eminently qualified, in other words.

His munificent salary would be $15 hourly, to top up the $29 million he earned with the Arizona Cardinals. Fame and glory came with the position. The school cafeteria was renamed in his honour to become the SPA 68 Cafe in recognition of his NFL uniform number. Henceforth, the students at the school would be served smoked carnitas, mashed cauliflower, salad bar and Korean beef bulgogi. In place of pizza, chicken nuggets, french fries and sweet desserts.

The school's new cafeteria cook was patient and innovative; gradually winning the trust of students with his colourful food presentations, enthusiasm to spare and lunch music while they ate. He was himself a source of entertainment as the school cook; dressing in lederhosen when he served the student body German sausage and sauerkraut.

Along with his kitchen assistant Brady Hunt, Veldheer has proven to skeptical parents that their children would come around to braised cabbage and veggie English muffin pizza. Now, with an audience of 260 pupils in the school that employs him, Veldheer speaks of a new sense of purpose, arriving daily by 7:30 am at the school in preparation for the day's lunch, getting the hot dishes and salad bar prepared for the first lunch at 11 am.

St. Paul the Apostle Catholic School