If you’ve eaten lunch at Miami High, you must have heard about the famous 25 cent cookies everyone raves about. They’re rich, sweet, chewy, and you feel like you are becoming one with the cookie. Haven’t you ever wondered who is responsible for creating them?

Marta Orozco is one of the many who bake the cookies for Miami High.

Many students may ask themselves what makes these cookies taste so delicious. “The secret ingredient is that there is none,” said Ms. Orozco, who has worked in Miami High for six years. “The cookies already come prepared and only need to be placed into the oven.”

In Ms. Orozco’s opinion, what makes the cookies taste scrumptious is the amount of time they are baked. “It takes about eight to ten minutes to bake the cookies, but when they’re in the oven for eight minutes, they’re just like the students like them,” she said. “They don’t always taste good if they’re baked for over ten minutes because they get crunchy and burnt.”

Baking cookies isn’t the only thing Ms. Orozco is known for because like the other lunch ladies, she is mostly seen serving food to students daily. Her job also includes conversing with students, which is the most joyful part of her job, and washing dishes, which is what she dislikes the most.

Ms. Orzoco is forty years old and is from Managua, Nicaragua. She has two sons. Her oldest son, who is twenty-one, graduated from Miami High and is currently a U.S Marine. Her other son is seven years old. During her free time, she enjoys long walks in the park with her sons and hopes to one day travel to Dubai.

Before becoming a part of Miami High’s cafeteria staff, she used to work part-time as a daycare teacher earning $800 bi-weekly. She persistently applied to become a cafeteria worker earning only $600 a month, but she wanted to work here because her son was going to attend Miami High and she was scared knowing about Miami High’s past reputation. Working here permitted her to keep an eye on him.

She doesn’t only cook daily at work but also at home for her youngest son. “I don’t enjoy cooking, but I do it because it’s necessary,” she said. Besides baking cookies, one of Ms. Orozco’s specialties at home is chicken breast with white rice.

Marta Orozco is the Cookie Lady

• She hopes to travel to Dubai one day
• One of her sons is a U.S. Marine
• She started working here because she wanted to keep an eye on her son who graduated from Miami High