MEET KATRINA OWENS

Katrina Owens’, cook, day starts promptly at 4 a.m. She goes through her morning routine, and by 5:30 a.m. she is at school. Then, Owens starts breakfast, lunch and occasionally works on the register, before about 2:15 p.m when she leaves.

But as a mother of 5, Owens’ day is far from over. She then takes her children to their respective sports practices, brings her daughter to Girl Scout meetings, and cooks dinner.

“My children are my prized possessions,” Owens said.

Owens said she is extremely close to her family. Though many of her relatives still live in New York, where Owens was born and raised, she keeps in touch by hosting an annual Thanksgiving dinner. She also makes sure to call her twin brother everyday, whom she feels most close to.

As teenagers, Owens’ twin brother also played in indirect role in Owens meeting her now husband. He forbade her from dating anyone from their own school, so Owens first saw her husband at another school’s football game.

“He’s very caring, but he’s also a very quiet person. He’s the total opposite of me,” Owens said.

Marrying her husband was one of the happiest moments of her life.

One of her lowest moments was when Owens was getting ready to turn 18. Her mom passed away from a lung disease. To commemorate both of these events, Owens got inked. On one forearm, a butterfly for her butterfly-loving mom. And on the other, the date of her wedding. Owens has ten tattoos in total.

“I was 16 when I got my first tattoo,” Owens said. “My kids’ birthstone colors are on my arm and roses. I want to get one more, but I don’t know which one just yet.”

MEET QUARTESHA COLE

Quartesha Cole, cook,  is used to change. Her father was in the Military, forcing her and her five siblings to move several times. Originally from Texas, they first relocated to North Carolina, before staying in St. Louis.

“I think it gave me more structure and a more set lifestyle than it would have been,” Cole said about her father being in the Military.

After her father passed, Cole was whisked into foster care, away from her family.

“It really wasn’t bad, but I missed home, I missed my brother, I missed my sisters,” Cole said. “I wished I had a stable home to be in.”

Being in foster care inspired Cole. In the future, Cole wishes to go back to school and become a social worker so she can later host a foster family of her own.

In the present, Cole said she is not at all close to her siblings, also adding that she really doesn’t have a relationship with her mother.

“One time my mom told me she was going to pick me up for a weekend visit, where you get to stay all weekend with your family, and she never showed up,” Cole said.

Instead, her closest mother figure is the lady who had taken her as a 13 year old. This same lady eventually become her mother-in-law after Cole married her husband this July 3.

“I knew I wanted to marry him when I got pregnant with my daughter, and I had my daughter when I was 15,” Cole said. It wasn’t hard it just made things harder. I had great support, but if I could go back and do it over again, I would have probably done it differently.”

MEET TOWANA

Towana, cook, works to maintain a standard in food safety here at MHS. And her training doesn’t come from just anywhere. Towana went through an intensive nine month training program at Le Cordon Bleu.

Everyday, Towana had to be dressed to a tee. Clothes ironed to perfection. Nails trimmed and proper. Her favorite part of the program was the class in which the students had access to authentic ingredients from the various countries of whichever dish they were cooking.

“I would tell anyone who was interested to definitely get involved, because I don’t think it’s something they would ever regret,” Towanna said.

Towanna applies her culinary training to the MHS cafeteria with the goal of producing the highest quality food for the students.

“This is what I enjoy doing. I mean you can do so many things with a culinary degree; however, I enjoy the hours here,” Towana said. And then of course having time off summer.”

One benefit of having the summers off is being able to spend them with her 19 year old daughter during her breaks from college.

“She and I are great friends.” Towanna said. “Not only is she my daughter- she is also my friend. We have a great relationship and she’s never been afraid to talk to me.”

With her daughter in college, Towana is finding more time to discover herself these days. She said it was exciting thing thinking about what new directions she wanted to go in. One of these new directions that Towana has always been interest in is travel. Some of Towana’s bucket list destinations include Australia, France, Italy, and Thailand.

“I believe the world becomes a much smaller place when you see what else is out there, when you see outside the little corner in which you live,” Towanna said. “It tears down walls. There’s a lot of prejudice because of things we simply don’t know. So if you get out there, you’ll find that everyone else is just like you are.”