We’d like to congratulate the winners below and all of the passionate food service employees across the country. We had an overwhelming response to our ‘contest’ and we plan to highlight every single person nominated on our Facebook and LinkedIn pages in the coming weeks. Follow us and share your teammate’s shoutout with your school community.
Warmly,
The School Food Solutions Team
Iysha Brooks - Palm Lane Charter School (CA)
Nominated by Angela Miller
Iysha Brooks should be nominated for going over and beyond during our school closure periods by ensuring that our students receive healthy meals each day. Because of her hard work and dedication, we also passed all of our audits that were also occurring in the midst of unprecedented uncertainties. Because of our school closure, Iysha's hours were reduced, but her service to Palm Lane did not. She continues to serve our students each week with smile we are very happy to have Iysha at Palm Lane and we are very thankful for her service and dedication.
Brandon Hughes - Purpose Prep (TN)
Nominated by Darren Armstrong
Hello, I’m enthusiastically nominating my co-worker, Mr. Brandon Hughes. Mr. Hughes is someone who’s ALWAYS dependable to get things done at Purpose Prep. In addition to serving on the operations team and being someone who’s very amazing behind-the-scenes, Mr. Hughes goes above and beyond to ensure that our students’ breakfast, lunch, and snack nutritional program is properly executed. At the early start of his day, Mr. Hughes would make sure that the proper food order has been delivered, the quantity is accurate, food temperature checks are complete and align with the appropriate temperature as instructed, food options are available for all students and their dietary restrictions (food allergies included), the quality of the food and beverages is above par, the multipurpose room (cafeteria) is set up appropriately for all grades (K-4), heating and cooling equipment functions properly and are safely maintained, and that health guidelines are followed accordingly so as to make sure students are eating safely. In addition, Mr. Hughes is part of the breakfast and lunch monitoring team where he can also be seen using this time to mentor students, checking in with them about their academics and anything else happening in their lives. Furthermore, Mr. Hughes helps make our school meals fun and an overall great culinary experience in which students are excited to eat healthy food and make smart food choices that become best practices at home. Mr. Hughes’ attention to detail, commitment to our students, and various role-related hats he wears help provide our students access to the best education possible, and the ability to do so within a safe and loving environment. Each day, he does this with a smile and an infectious positive attitude. For these reasons, I nominate Mr. Brandon Hughes for this most prestigious award. This would be an awesome “thank you” for many of the things he does out of the kindness of his heart.
Jackie Richard - Hosanna Christian Academy (LA)
Nominated by Tracie Gilliam
Ms. Richard goes above and beyond feeding the students. She does a great job reaching out and personally getting to know students. She manages a crew that cooks and serves delicious and nutritious meals. She also, feeds the homeless and tries find recourses to meet their needs.
Arlease Ward - FirstLine - Langston Hughes Academy (LA)
Nominated by Deinira Angelain
Arlease is always a pleasant person to work with. She puts forth great efforts to make things right for our students to receive their many meals. She always volunteering to help out with any events that we might have, even after her work hours. She makes sure that our special needs students are taken care of as well and she remembers their needs. She takes time to communicate with our students. She takes time out of her daily schedule to collaborate with me so that we are on the same page for meals and schedules. She is a great leader for her staff and always has a calm demeanor. She's great at being versatile and accommodating with changes and never complains. Btw, she loves our garden and the animals we have. She takes time out to give our garden teacher old and uneaten fruit for compost and will also feed the animals some fruit before throwing it away. She is truly a joy to work with! I am Team "Arlease".
Linda McCall - Somerset Academy of Las Vegas (NV)
Nominated by Renae Notaro
Why does this food service staff member deserve to be recognized?: Despite our many challenges with our school closure and multiple ever-changing plans for reopening, Linda has been one of the most flexible and understanding members of our school staff. With a smile on her face, she arrives earlier than anyone and diligently attends to her many responsibilities. Because of her continued efforts, our students, who are currently not attending school on campus, are still able to receive nutritious meals every week. When meals aren't picked up, Linda continues to call parents until she is able to connect with them and set up alternative times for them to pick up their child's meals. Although these times may not be the most favorable for Linda's schedule, she happily works with our parents to make sure that they can come at a time that is most convenient for them. Linda is passionate when it comes to feeding our children, and she will make every effort to ensure that they have food in their bellies. Additionally, Linda has been a standout in charter school system. We have seven schools, all that are now implementing the NSLP program, and Linda has been recognized by our NSLP director for her contributions to the program. Linda is an active participant in all kitchen manager meetings, always providing useful feedback and insights aimed at increasing the efficiency of our program. From the day that we hired Linda, she has been reliable, efficient, meticulous, and detail-oriented. She takes her role seriously and ensures that her responsibilities are completed with precision! Her work ethic is truly commendable, and there is no way that our program would be as successful as it is without her! Linda is a rare gem, a dedicated member of our team who never wavers in her commitments! We are thankful to have her, and I know that our families appreciate everything she does to make sure their children are fed.
