What a Wild Idea

   "Wild About School Lunch." That's the theme for this year's National School Lunch Week. Mabel Herrington, cafeteria manager at Harmony Elementary and Lynn Bush, manager of Ivy Creek Elementary, both in Buford, were among the hundreds of cafeteria workers who attended nutrition workshops and a kickoff luncheon at the Centriplex in Macon last week. Food workers dressed in safari hats, leopard print clothes and even toy snake "scarves" around their necks showed how wild they were about the upcoming week.
   National School Lunch Week runs from October 13-17 and includes World Hunger Day, October 16.
   Cafeteria workers all over the county are planning special events for next week. But many of them are wild about what they do all year long.
   Betty Sikes, cafeteria manager at Lilburn Elementary and her assistant, Pegi Lancaster started out doing little song and dance routines for their own students in an effort to teach them good nutrition. The next thing they knew they were travelling around the state-Betty dressed as a clown and Pegi as a gypsy-conducting workshops to educate other cafeteria workers. But there's more to it than fun and games.
   "We contribute to the health and well-being of our country's future which is the children. We provide healthy, nutritious meals," said Pegi.
   Susan Garateguy of Beaver Ridge is so wild about her co-workers she even writes poetry about them. The poem she shared with me is too long for this column, but in a letter she wrote, "I am very proud of what I do and who I work with. My goal is to have each parent understand that each child is offered a healthy breakfast and lunch that is served with a lot of TLC."
   Diana Mazurek is also wild about cafeteria work. After she retired as manager at Fort Daniel Elementary, she came back as what's known as a "recycle" and works part time in the main office assisting the county nutritional education coordinator Lynn Kirkland.
   Mazurek is looking beyond School Lunch Week and gearing up for the yearlong nutritional theme of Going Global. The objective is to heighten students' awareness of hunger around the world-including Gwinnett County-and involve them in helping relieve hunger among other children. Donating canned goods to the local coops is one of many ways children can help. 
   The global theme is showing up internally in the Gwinnett school cafeterias as the menus are taking on a more international flair. High schools have a variety of food courts that offer foreign cuisine such as stir-fry and egg rolls. And all Gwinnett schools now recognize that with the great diversity of students they serve, many come from cultures that are vegetarian. Every day, students may select vegetarian meals such as chef salads and veggie burgers.
   Are you tired of the same old lunches? Why not go wild next week and bite into some school cafeteria food?

10-8-3

Archive