Dinner lady

Dinner ladies were people who served meals to students in canteens. Typically, dinner ladies were behind a series of glass-covered heating tables, dispensing food to a queue of patrons.

In 2007, Rose Tyler served undercover as a dinner lady while investigating Deffry Vale High School with the Tenth Doctor, who set himself up as a teacher. Rose gave the Doctor the impression that the position was lowly and undesirable. It was discovered that Rose's four colleagues were among a pack of thirteen Krillitanes working under Brother Lassar to unlock the Skasis Paradigm, serving chips cooked with Krillitane oil to that end. (TV: School Reunion)

In 2017, Bill Potts worked as a dinner lady in the canteen at St Luke's University when she met and was eventually tutored by the Twelfth Doctor. She once recounted to the Doctor how she had given extra chips to a particular woman, in an effort to flirt with her. When finally the woman noticed her, Bill saw that the months of extra chips had made the woman fat. (TV: The Pilot)

When served food by an Ood on Sanctuary Base 6 in 4221, Rose noted that she was once a dinner lady too. Though quickly clarifying to the Ood that she did mean to suggest it was "a lady", Rose noted that she was unaware of the Ood's gender. (TV: The Impossible Planet)