Food for the Body and Brain
“Feeding a child at school is such a simple thing, but it works miracles.
—-Drew Barrymore
Teaching and preparing our youth to be independent adults has and always will be the primary objective of schools. With this being said there is much more that goes into creating an environment for students that is conducive for learning. Our kids spend the equivalent of a workday, interacting as learners in our classrooms for seven hours daily. Food provides sustenance for the human body. Sufficient fueling is even more critical for children who navigate as they go through multiple growth spurts over the first quarter of their lives. Keeping them fed may not be the only need to ensure learning, but the existence of hunger will ensure that learning does not occur. This month’s Harper Unsung Hero, John Ruemenapp, leads the charge everyday to provide two meals for each of our students.
John reflects on the first part of his life as a child living on the east side of the state. “I was born in Detroit in 1968 and lived in that area of the state through my seventh-grade year when my mom passed away. After this transition in my life my father moved our family to Petoskey. Dad was an accountant when we lived near Detroit. He also owned a company that made coin counters. He sold the company when we moved to Petoskey and went to work as a bookkeeper and accountant.” Soon after moving to Petoskey John’s dad met another woman and eventually the two households would combine to form a version of the Brady Bunch. “My dad remarried. We were a blended family with four girls and three boys. I’m one of the middle siblings. With the combined family, three of us were the same age which was an interesting dynamic”
Moving from the Detroit area to Petoskey was a life changing experience and a culture shock for John. He describes life as a child in both locations. “Early on as a child living on the outskirts of Detroit, my life was similar to the movie The Sandlot. We would play outside with kids in the neighborhood. Some of the activities we enjoyed included Kick the Can and riding our bikes. We spent most of the daylight hours playing outside.” John still enjoyed being outdoors in Petoskey but the experience was not exactly the same as on the east side of the state. “When we moved to Petoskey I started playing rec league football and baseball. I developed a greater love for the outdoors. I enjoyed downhill skiing and cross country skiing. I played football in high school through tenth grade. I also was on the ski team.”
Sports provided structure for John as a teenager but this too would change. John talks about what ended his days as a high school athlete. “When I was a sophomore my appendix burst so I was not able to play sports for a while and my interests went elsewhere.” For a while it seemed as if John’s life was spiraling in the wrong direction but a program he signed on for at school gave him an interest that would shape his future. John reflects on his initial experience in the culinary field. “Our school in Petoskey was a traditional high school but also had a vocational component. I decided to join the culinary arts/hospitality program. I learned many of the basics of being in the culinary and hospitality field. Some traditional high school skills were also a part of the curriculum including mathematics.” John originally signed on because it seemed an easy way to complete some of his required credits but it soon became more than this to him. “When I originally began the culinary arts program I had no idea it would become a career. I simply signed up to fill two hours of my high school day. After my junior year I became a mentor for first year students in the program. I felt that I had a niche for teaching culinary skills.”
The timing of entering the culinary and hospitality vocational program provided John with the structure that he didn’t necessarily know he needed at that time in his life and also painted a picture of a future career. “The teacher for this program, Jim Daunter, kind of took me under his wing. I decided that I wanted to go further with being a chef after high school. It has become a rewarding career for me. What I like best is that as a chef I never do the same thing. Every day is something different.”
After graduating from Petoskey High School in 1987, John had a blueprint for his life as an adult. He loved cooking and sought out the best post high school training program for this. John gives details about this. “I enrolled at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island in the culinary program. I wanted to go to the Culinary Institute Arts of America in New York. This was the best culinary program in the country, but I was put on a wait list so I enrolled at Johnson and Wales because this was the second best.”
Rhode Island was a long way from home but this didn’t matter to John. “It was good for me to move out of Michigan. I earned an associates degree in culinary arts and a bachelor's degree in food service management, graduating from Johnson and Wales in 1991.” The four years in Rhode Island was a chapter in his life that John appreciated but he was ready to come home after this. “I came back to Northern Michigan and began working for Stafford's Hospitality, a company that owned several restaurants in the Petoskey Area. I started out as Sou Chef at the Pier Restaurant in Harbor Springs. A Sou Chef is second in command to the Head Chef. Pier Restaurant was a fine dining restaurant.”
Working in a fine dining restaurant was not always easy. John describes his job as a Sou Chef. “The hours were brutal, especially with the Pier Restaurant being in a tourist community. I worked twelve to fifteen hours a day, six days a week.” The summer tourist season was definitely a time of extended hours for John at the restaurant. His work schedule remained busy all year with a bit of a reprieve from mid October to November. Business usually picked up again when the snow began to fly with tourists coming in for winter recreation activities.
John’s training at Johnson and Wales prepared him well for the many responsibilities of his job. He describes what his job requirements were. “As a Sou Chef I did everything. I cooked, planned menus and specials, and oversaw the staff. I worked in this position for several years.” After putting in the time and hours at the Pier Restaurant he was offered a promotion. “Staffords’s Hospitality did some restructuring in 1995 and at this time I was moved to a head chef position at Bay View Inn in Petoskey. This was a fine dining bed and breakfast. I also oversaw the catering and the main production kitchen. As a head chef there were still heavy hours and a lot more responsibility. I worked there for ten years.”
While working at Bay View, John met his first wife Lee, who was a waitress there. John and Lee were married in 1994 and expanded their family a few years later. Lee and John were blessed with their first child, Julian in 1996 and their second child, Isabelle in 1999. John continued to work as a head chef at Bay View but eventually the hours required while trying to be a husband and father caught up to him. John reflects on his next transition. “It was difficult working the hours that I did and raising a family. I decided it was time for a change. I started working at Northern Michigan Community Mental Health in 2001. My main role was teaching cooking and life skills to mentally challenged adults. This was an eight to four job so it was much easier to be a dad.” Working in this job was a new experience for John. It gave him a new insight. “It was very eye opening working with individuals with mental illness. It was life changing. I learned a lot from this experience. I developed skills of compassion and understanding. I worked this job for five years.” As much as John enjoyed working with mentally challenged adults, it became overwhelming for him. “It got to be a mentally taxing job. Life was difficult for these people. Some were mistreated and taken advantage of. Some committed suicide. It was emotionally draining for me.”
An opportunity that provided an even better opportunity to align with his kids’ schedules came John’s way. John talks about the timing of his next move. “At this time Harbor Springs Public Schools was looking for a food service director. I was ready to get away from my current job and applied, interviewed, and was offered the job. I was employed by Chartwells who was contracted out by Harbor Springs Public Schools.” John immediately was able to put to practice the skills he had learned and honed as well as use his creativity as a chef. “I thought it was a great job right from the start. I enjoyed taking my culinary knowledge and passing it on to the students. I strived to be creative with cooking. I wanted to create as much with fresh and local food supplies as possible rather than using all processed and canned goods.”
John was more than content working as the food service director for Harbor Springs Public Schools. It allowed him to continue doing what he loved as a cook while also working hours that aligned with his kids calendar. Despite the happiness with his job, change was on the horizon again. John talks about what brought him from Harbor Springs to Calhoun County. “I worked at Harbor Springs for twelve years. During this time I met my second wife, Laura, through a mutual friend. Laura was living in Marshall. We had a long distance relationship for a few years.” John found himself at a crossroads. He was happy with his job at Harbor Springs and his kids were there. However he and Laura were becoming closer and dating long distance was now more challenging. He had a long talk with his kids and he decided that it was time to move. “I quit my job and moved to Marshall in 2012. I was offered a job for Lakeview Schools and worked as assistant food director there for a year and a half before the food director position at Harper Creek came available. I applied and was hired in 2014.”
During his time serving as Harper Creek’s food service director, John has tried to be innovative with the menu. His goal is to provide a variety of choices for students and staff with food items that taste great and are healthy. John gives details about this process. “I still try to provide the best quality food for students while staying within the budget. The cost is sometimes a little more when using non-processed food. I sought out a partnership through Harper Creek with Kalamazoo Valley Hub. Their goal is to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables within a fifty mile radius.” John has offered tasting sessions at the high school. Periodically he provides opportunities for students to try unique items. This is a way to nudge them in expanding their appetite for a variety of healthy food choices. It also provides insight for John in planning for future menu choices.
Making sure our students are fed and ready to learn is something that John takes seriously. He gives much of the credit to our kitchen staff. “Not everyone sees behind the scenes what it takes to feed our students. District wide we prepare eighteen to nineteen hundred daily lunches and around a thousand breakfasts. I appreciate all my kitchen staff. I always say that I am the one who comes up with the crazy ideas and my workers are the ones who carry it out.”
John has a wide variety of experiences in his career in the foodservice industry. He talks about bringing with him to Harper Creek what he has gained from each of his jobs. “I have learned through my experiences that being patient, kind and understanding is important. This is something I try to implement in my job here at Harper Creek. Being happy requires much less energy than being negative.”
John has seen the high demand side of the culinary industry as a head chef at a high end fine dining restaurant. His years working in this environment has helped to hone his skills as a chef but he feels blessed to have a job now that more aligns being a husband and father. He talks about family at this stage in his life. “Laura and I were married in 2022. She is a second-grade teacher in Marshall. She is my sounding board. I run my work ideas through her before I try them. She has three kids, Zach, Eli and Sophie. They are all adults. I recently became a grandfather. Eli and his wife had their first child last April. They live in Plainwell.”
John’s passion for cooking is what keeps coming into work each day, something that he looks forward to. He is an artist of sorts with his creativity with food. His story is a reminder of the importance of our food service staff. Kids who are hungry will struggle to learn.