Melton canteen worker Glenda, 69, cooks up 40 years at Ragdale Hall

Glenda is head of the staff canteen at the award-winning health hydro and thermal spa and recently celebrated her 40 year milestone with colleagues.

She’s been responsible for feeding the hundreds of Ragdale Hall staff since the canteen opened in the early 1990s, and leads an eight-strong team in planning the menus and ordering the food.

Glenda (69), from Melton, has two children, four grandchildren and five great grandchildren. “I’ve been really looked after here and have always felt very secure in my job” she said.

“The staff canteen is a real hub where everyone comes together; there aren’t many places where all the staff - including the directors - will sit together for their meals and chat to each other. I think that really sums up Ragdale Hall.”

Glenda has worked in catering since she was 16 but in fact wanted to be a librarian. She attended the Sarson School for girls in Melton, where she was the captain of the school library and heavily involved in running it. The sixty-nine-year-olds parents steered her away from a career in books but she still spends a lot of her leisure time in the local library.

Her other hobbies include gardening and decorating, and she was very pleased to have mastered the art of wallpapering on her first attempt aged 67! This is some achievement given that her colleagues say she still manages to get cream on the ceiling and her shoes when making the cake mix in the canteen. Her team are always quick to run for cover when they see her getting the mixer out.

Glenda has no plans to retire and added: “I couldn’t do such a good job without my great team, we all help each other out. I enjoy working with all the staff here but especially the younger ones, they tire me out but also keep me young.”