A million meals and counting - Birmingham dinner lady with 50-year career has no plans to retire
One of Britain's longest-serving dinner ladies says she has no plans to retire, even after 50 years in the role.
Rosemary Stokes from South Yardley in Birmingham has served nearly two million meals over her long career - and she says she still loves the job.
She started working school kitchens in 1974. Fifty years on, and she's now the lead catering supervisor at St. Thomas More Primary.
She joined them in 1985, after spending 11 years at the nearby Lyndon Green Infant School.
Rosemary is now one of Britain's longest-serving dinner ladies, and has notched up some impressive numbers in that time:
she's served 180 dinners a day over the last 50 years
that's 1,710,000 dinners across her career
"They've got me !"
Staff and pupils at St. Thomas More had a big surprise for Rosemary on her 50-year anniversary - they gifted her flowers, chocolate and a cake.
The great-grandmother-of-six from South Yardley said:
"It was just fabulous. It was a bit of a blur. I'd been invited to the school assembly as they were doing a pancake assembly.
"So of course when I went into the assembly I was given a seat and all of sudden I looked to the right and saw my boss and I was confused. Then I looked to the right and there were my two daughters and my friends and after that, a photograph popped on the screen at the front of the hall and I thought 'they've got me!'
"They presented me with flowers, chocolate, a cake and a speech from the headmaster. I think I did a speech so it was a bit of a blur! Some of the children told me how much they loved the dinners which was lovely."
"I go to work and every day I love it - I'm not going anywhere yet"
Rosemary says she's stayed in the job for so long because of her love for the role. She said:
"I just think it's the variety and the different things you go through. Everything changes and I love seeing the children come along and try different things and that's so rewarding. We change the dishes quite regularly and they just try different things.
"I go to work and every day I love it. It doesn't phase me in any way at all, I just really love it. It's hard to explain. People have asked if I'm going to retire but I'm not going anywhere yet.
"There's not been a day since I've started that I haven't wanted to go into the kitchens - you could say I'm mad!
"It's really gone quickly. I can't believe it's 50 years. Although I knew it was coming round to 50 I didn't actually remember when it would be ! I've always been lucky to work with such lovely people and that makes all the difference too."
Rosemary's long-standing school recipe secret ? Chocolate
Rosemary says her favourite dish to cook is one from her book of 1950s classics - chocolate concrete. She said:
"I've got this very old book and that's where the chocolate concrete recipe comes from. Everybody loves it so it has to be chocolate concrete.
"Lots of the meals have changed and we have to follow more nutritional guidelines which we always did really but now there's more allergen and dietary requirements.
Rosemary's seen technology evolve over her long career, and says she was a bit reluctant to embrace it at first, saying:
"The children's behaviour changes over the years but they just follow things that go in school really. I was a bit horrified a few years ago when I discovered a laptop - I said it wouldn't be able to cook anything!
But she's moved with the times, saying:
"We do all the newsletters via the laptop now which is quite bizarre for me. They get four meal choices every day so they just come and choose what they want. Sometimes we have themed days which is nice.
"The school building has changed a lot too - 16 years ago I was chuffed as I had a brand new kitchen with new dining rooms. That's all improved greatly."
Rosemary joins a select few dinner ladies across Britain who have reached 50 years of service - by her own words, she's still got a lot more shifts to do.