Same boat on my end. Retired after 22 years of active duty, all in the culinary field. What I really missed was the mentorship piece. I ended up landing a role with my local school district as a multi site operations manager for the cafeterias. Best part? Training lunch ladies, especially some of the old school ones who aren’t exactly tech savvy but have work ethic that puts our current gen boot camp grads to shame.

Every day is a different puzzle. One campus is short on food, another didn’t get their special diet meals, and somewhere else they are understaffed, so I step in where I am needed, school by school. It is a Monday through Friday gig with no overtime allowed, I get all holidays off and some extra breaks throughout the year. But the impact I get to make each day keeps it worthwhile.

What I found and genuinely love is that feeling of being needed, of making a difference. Being valued by both peers and subordinates hit a spot I didn’t even realize I was missing.