Leading to SUCCEED: A Grant County Schools Podcast
A podcast where we highlight the leaders, partnerships, and practices shaping our student' success.
Leading to SUCCEED: A Grant County Schools Podcast
Leading to Succeed Podcast 5
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Superintendent Moody interviews Grant County Schools Food Service Director, Maggy Livingood. Mrs. Livingood shares insights into the food service department.
Hello and welcome back to Leading to Succeed, a Grant County Schools podcast. We're very delighted to have with us for this month's uh recording this Maggie Living Good, who is our Food Service Director. Maggie, welcome to the podcast. Thank you very much. Thanks for being here. As we always do, why don't you give us a little bit of background about your professional journey and how you came to this position?
SPEAKER_02Okay. So I've written down this is a long story. I'll try to make it short as possible. So this was going to go way back to when I was senior high school. I graduated in 97 from Simon Kitten High School. And we had to do a project at the end of our senior year about where we wanted our career to be. I said I would like to be a dietitian and I would like to get into schools and teach kids lessons about nutrition. So as a senior in high school, I am now where I am right now. But um so I went to college. Um during my first couple years of college, I always enjoyed cooking. So I took a path and got a degree in culinary arts from Sullivan University. Um while I was at Sullivan University, I always had a desire to teach. So after getting my SOSIS degree in culinary arts, I um went and got my bachelor's degree in education, in elementary education, um, and started teaching elementary education. Um I in my path of teaching, um, I got my master's in um emphasized in special ed, and I got my rank one in leadership. Um so I taught 18 years in elementary school in Grant County, um, and it has led me to here as the food service director. Um and I've said many times that I think my life has made this full circle of I've always enjoyed food, I've always enjoyed nutrition, um, and I've enjoyed students and learning, and I've made that full circle and am able to combine both of those now.
SPEAKER_00So, how many years have you been in your current role?
SPEAKER_02Um, this is my fourth year and as the food service director.
SPEAKER_00I think that story is so neat how you were able to identify early on, even though you didn't take a linear path, all the education and training that you received really did equip you to be where you are now. And I love the fact that you've combined all of your passions together. And so I think there's a great lesson in there for our listeners. Yes. Uh just because you may not see a direct path, don't give up on your dream because there's many ways that you can onboard to that.
SPEAKER_02Exactly.
SPEAKER_00That's great.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Talk to us a little bit about how has the role of school nutrition changed over the past few years.
SPEAKER_02Um, if it's okay, I'm just gonna give you some information on um school meals and how they have changed, not just the last past several years, but how a big change occurred um in 2010. Okay. All right. Which will lead us to um these last couple years changing. So um I think a lot of us know um in 2010 or a number of years back, school meals kind of made a drastic change. Um, and that was part of the Healthy Hungry Free Kids Act, and it really revolutionized um um school meals. Um the part um of doing that was to get healthier foods into our schools. Um, it was brought on to increase the servings of fruits and vegetables and whole grains and just to give our students higher quality meals. Um it also included and wanted to provide those healthy and nutritious meals, but also educate our students on healthier food choices and able to teach our children healthy habits as well. So, with that Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, we are still in that act that started in 2010. Um, Congress in that is required to periodically review those standards and reauthorize funding. So we are still in that. So if we talk about how it has changed in the last several years, um the school meal requirements are ever changing. I think as our medical staff and nutritionists learn more about nutrition, they're realizing that we need to add things to our school meals to make them more nutritious. So we um in the last couple of years have had new band-aids on sodium, um, and the sodium um has is has different stages of where we were having to decrease that in our school meals. Um this year and then the upcoming year, they are now putting sugar limits on our food, which school meals have never had sugar limits on our foods. Um right now the limits are on cereal, yogurt, um, and the in two years it's going to be a combined percentage of how much added sugar is to food. So when we talk about changes, most of the changes that occur with school meals kind of occur with our the requirements of the food, which I think are a great thing because it's the knowledge that we learn with nutritious food that we need to give that to our students.
SPEAKER_00So that's interesting to hear. It fascinates me that I think we've seen a shift culturally in recent times about awareness of, you know, I can remember when I was a kid, fat was kind of the buzzword. Right. And now we're drilling down into those microbes and then looking at the additives. Yep. And so uh I like the fact that you distinguish between added sugar and sugar because our fruits and vegetables do contain sugar, but the um the body's response to that sugar and how it stores and and taps into that sugar is quite different than a highly refined processed sugar added to the food. So it sounds like it's a positive change that has occurred over the first few years.
SPEAKER_02I guess I need to add too that just in the last six days they have um changed the requirements on whole milk. That came out about a couple months ago that we were going to be able to offer whole milk just at lunch. Okay. Um, six days ago, they have now opened that to all school meal programs. So we will see where we go with that next year, but we will not be able to offer whole milk for breakfast, lunch, after school, supper, summer feeding. Um, so that could be a change as well that we see in our schools.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that that may sound like a small change, but if I consider students are in school roughly 173 days a year, and many of our students are eating two meals a day at school, so the compounding effect uh of that over time, I can see having some health impacts on our students. Absolutely. So I think that's probably a net positive for us for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00So people may not really know what a typical day uh for a food service director looks like. Can you explain to us, give us a little bit of information about what your day-to-day operations are?
SPEAKER_02Okay, okay. I think like any job you say typical day. It's always changing, which is something I like about the job. Um, but we I am in charge of six kitchens in our district, our six schools. Um every day I do try to visit one of our schools for breakfast or for lunch. Um, and this allows me to check on the kitchens, it allows me to check on our staff, but most importantly the students. Um, students are my comfort. Um I'm still learning that comfort in the kitchen, I'm getting there, but um, you see me more out in the cafeteria interacting with the students, I feel like, more than you see me back in the kitchen. But I thought that's also important. They're our customers, they're eating our food, so I need to check in on that. Um, I'm also observing always what students are putting on their trays, what they're actually eating. Um, you know, I talk to them every day about what's their favorites, what's their least favorites. Um, I actually had a student um just the other day that said, Miss Linda, can we have black beans on our menu next week or next year? So um, and I've I've gotten that out there that I am the one that plans the menu. So they say that a lot. I also had a kid that asked me, how about cheese quesadillas? So um I'd like that they now know me as the menu planner, maybe, but um, so I'm looking at both those items, especially black beans. I love that that he was excited about that. Um and visiting our schools, um, you know, one of the most important things I think about that, and that's just being in leadership is building relationships. You know, um, I love going into the kitchens and just like being being with people that you work with all the time, how was your weekend? You know, um, but also asking them questions about how's this menu item going, you know, so they feel like they're have some impact on that as well. Um in regards to not being out of school, um, I'm always in communication with many people in the district, um communicating with our administrators, FRC directors, kitchen management managers, our district staff, maintenance, lots of avenues, um, planning programs, um, working on budget and finance, um, um tracking how we have forecasted our food. So are we on the right track with that? Um, planning menus, um, and also just employee and staffing and hiring and things of that sort as well. So there's always something.
SPEAKER_00Uh you invited me to speak to the staff at the beginning of the year, and one of the things I shared with them, and I still believe fully, is that to feed a person represents what I think is one of the kindest acts of care and and the kindest acts of expressions of generosity because we all need to eat and we're probably our most vulnerable when we're most hungry. And I think I even shared with the staff then what is a marker of good health, yeah, and I would say that a healthy appetite is a marker and has been for centuries predating what we know in the medical science world today. Um, you know, that term healthy appetite is always served as a signal. So I love the fact that you're out with students and that they recognize you as the person and can advocate, and it sounds like for healthy options uh on our menu as well. Absolutely. It tells me that things are working. Yes. Because um they're coming to you with those suggestions.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00Let's talk about school nutrition and student success. And I know you're very passionate about this because I've heard you talk to principals about it. Give us some insight on how school nutrition may impact student success.
SPEAKER_02Well, I was gonna say, I love this question because I think this goes with what you have kind of done with student center excellence. Um education and having a degree in education, one of the things you learn first is about man's low's hierarchy of needs. Um, yes, and that's that's our pyramid, and um those needs at the bottom need to be met first for us to meet those needs at the top. And at the bottom is our psychological and safety needs, and one of those is food.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02Um, so what that is kind of saying is that we must be fed, we must feel that um our needs needs are met before we can do that tree learning and succeeding. So maybe I can say that food is our most important part of fluid.
SPEAKER_00It's certainly a huge component of learning. I remember uh not that it's uh about my experience, but back in uh the time when I was in elementary school, there was always a big push before state testing to make sure that you ate breakfast, that you got a good night's uh rest. And they really emphasize that in order for your brain to work, and I've heard uh that the brain is probably the most metabolic active organ in the body. So for our our students to really engage in deep thinking and problem solving, they must be nourished and nourished in a balanced kind of way to be able to perform that. Yes. Um talk about the impact potentially on behavior and attendance.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Um this is probably where I feel like sometimes we forget about how important food is. Um eating healthy in general um has a huge impact on student learning. It has a huge impact on our behavior and attendance. Um I have started since I've been the food service director is I have been going into our elementary schools and teaching nutrition lessons to all the elementary students. Um again, that's my comfort zone. Sure. It's safe, but I get a lot of energy when I do that on those days. Um and in that I really push that we need to eat to eat foods from all five of the food groups. We need a variety of foods. Um, and I tell the kids that each of those food groups, that variety of foods, gives our bodies different healthy superpowers, talking kids language. So, or nutrients as I say to the older kids. Um, and our bodies can be the best they can be when we are eating healthy. So all of that goes into learning and behavior and attendance. So if you don't mind, I'm gonna go through those five food groups and kind of tell you what I tell the kids of how each of those different foods help our body, um, help our body in many ways, but also help learning and help us at school. So I would say that our bodies need to eat fruits, and that is um what helps keep us from getting sick. I like to use the saying Apple Day keeps the doctor away.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02Um and I like to say that's not just apples, that's bananas, that's watermelon. Um, and you know, you can start from the doctor, but if you're eating those fruits, it's like eating that yummy medicine instead of eating that medicine. So, fruits again, if we're eating those fruits, we're not going to the doctor, we're not getting sick, we're gonna do a full learning. So um there is that there. Um, vegetables, which are is a hard one for for our kids, um, but I talk about let's just try to find one vegetable that you like. Um, but my big push with vegetables is how much they help your eyes. And man, we need our eyes for everything. We need it for reading, we need it for so many things when we're learning. Pay attention to the teacher. Um, grains, um, which again a lot of people um contribute or put with carbohydrates, which carbohydrates are many other foods in our grains. Um, but grains are so important because they're what give us energy. And like you said, it's not just energy to run around and play, but it's energy to think. Um, I tell them that grains are very important for breakfast. It's like starting your engine for the day. Um, and if we want to do our best learning, if we want our bodies to be ready for the day and do the things that our bodies need to do, especially at school, especially in thinking and paying attention, we need to eat that breakfast and we need those grains. Um, protein, um, I tell them that that builds our muscles. And you know, the littlest muscles, like blinking your eyes, um, is part of our food that gives us that energy to blink our eyes, um, and we need muscles to sit up tall. We need muscles again to focus and and to learn. Um, and dairy, you know, I tell them that that's good for our bones and our teeth. And again, bones are just for supporting us, but it's protecting all those important things inside our body. Like, just like you said, it's protecting our brain that needs to do all those thinking. So, you know, eating healthy really makes an impact on students' behavior, their attendance, their learning. But I think that it boosts our mood if we're eating healthy. Um, you know, it proves our memory. Um, and if there's been research out there that our students or those that eat healthy, their test scores are better, their grades are better. We don't go to take it in half. It absolutely does.
SPEAKER_00I love the fact, and and I'm sure this is reinforced through our health and PE teachers too. But I don't think we can invest too much uh in teaching our students the value of the choices that they make. Right. And so it's all about cause and effect as far as I'm concerned. So hearing that simplified message that's age appropriate for our students and not vilifying any food group, but understanding that all food is a resource and it it's how we manage our resources for optimization. Yes. And so I appreciate very much the fact that you spell that out for them and are able to connect it to something that they can understand and relate to, to understand of how to improve themselves. And you use a phrase that I like to use all the time is be the best uh that they can be. Yes. A lot of times I'll end some of my communications internally, is that we do our best so that students can be their best. And that and I I love how you've taken your role to kind of amplify that message and make it real in the lives of our students. So I appreciate that. Uh let's talk about some potential misconceptions. What might the typical person who's say around my age or perhaps a little younger might have about uh food service and cafeteria food today?
SPEAKER_02Yes. I would think our biggest misconception, um, you know, I think, and I hear it a lot too, like when I went to school, elementary school, everything was homemade. We had those yeast rolls, we had, you know, those home cooked meals, um, standards have changed, requirements have changed. Um, and I think that's the biggest misconception that the requirements have changed for the good. Um back to um 2010, the healthy act really really made a difference on the type of foods that we are serving our kids. Um the school programs are really governed by some of the most strict nutrition standards in the country. Um school meals are one of the healthiest meals that our students receive outside, especially outside of the school day. Um from home, some homes, and even restaurants. And I don't think we realize that. Um school meal requirements. Um we have requirements on the amount of food we're allowed to serve the kids, calorie ranges, sodium limits. We have to serve different vegetable subgroups, we have to serve them whole grains. All 80% of the grains that we serve have to be 51% um whole grain. I see. Um we have to serve low-fat dairy with the addition now of whole milk, um, lean proteins, and we now have those sugar limits. So um, as we think about that, where where do those come from? Um school meals follow the dietary guidelines of America until those guidelines were updated this year. Um school meals follow the guidelines that were put out in 2020, which is the my plate model. Um, I can see in the next probably five or six years, those will be updated to follow the new dietary guidelines. But right now, um school meals follow the my plate guideline. Um and that is kind of what I present to the kids when we're doing our lessons. So um so the the my plate shows those five food groups, fruits, vegetables, proteins, grains, and dairies in a place setting, and it helps us visualize the way our plate should look. Um I love it too because it even kind of shows the amounts that you can have. Um so I say that because those are the requirements that we have to serve our students. Um, like I said, we have to have offer a whole grain for lunch every day, we have to offer a vegetable, um, and our vegetables are not um are broken into subgroups. So throughout throughout the week, we have to serve a dark green vegetable, we have to serve a red orange vegetable, we have to serve legumes or beans, we have to serve a starchy vegetable, and then there is the other vegetable. So we are required to not just serve one type of vegetable, but we are required to serve those different colors, and those different colors of vegetables give us different vitamins and minerals. Um, we have to offer fruit, um, we have to offer dairy, we have to offer um protein. Um in that, with all of those things that are offered, um kids can get all of those items to make a meal. Um I think that is other misconception that sometimes the misconception is my student or my child didn't get enough to eat today. Well, they have a choice. Um the choice is you can get a food from every food group. Um, you also have the choice to only get three components. Um, one of those components has to be a fruit or a vegetable. Um, but if our kids and students were filling their plates up with all of those components, they would have plenty to eat to fill their bellies. Um, and then like I said, we have all kinds of other requirements on sodium and sugar and healthy fats as well. So, um, like I said, school meals are one of the healthiest meals that our students can get. Um, and I think that's the biggest misconception.
SPEAKER_00I I agree. I know you and I have had several conversations. And when I think of marketing and I think of the supermarket, uh, you know, there's not a lot of restrictions that I can tell in terms of what constitutes healthy labeling. Yeah. And I think that game has been played for quite a few years. But when it comes to the school food and school nutrition, you are really held to a way stricter standard than what our grocery offerings are and what our some of our big food corporations are allowed to do in terms of marketing. And I I'll also say this I I've served at the elementary school and at the high school as principal and have eaten in both cafeterias. And if you go through and get just the student portion and you accept everything that's offered, you're going to be full by the end of the day, and you're also not going to suffer that afternoon slump uh with the added. sugar and then the sodium spike in blood pressure, you know, that typically follows say if you went to a fast food or a commercial chain restaurant, or even if you fixed a bunch of box food at home that you would typically get. So I think, you know, going back to your point, regardless if it's the my plate or the new food guidelines, if you're if you're consuming those five food groups, as you said, they're largely whole foods, and you're getting a lot of color in your diet, you can you can uh be reasonably assured that you're eating a healthy diet.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. I agree. I agree.
SPEAKER_00So talk to us a little bit about and um making menu items based on these restrictions that are palatable and preferred by students.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes. So like I said I think um we think back to how we ate when we were in school and those home cooked meals. It with the restrictions that we have it does make it difficult to do scratch cooking. So a majority of the foods that we get we purchase already made. The reason I say that is because we are serving things are being made already with those nutrition requirements. And it makes it sometimes hard for our students because the students that food that they are getting served is very different than what they eat from home. We serve Papa John's pizza at all of our schools that is a different recipe than what you would get if you order Papa John's pizza from home. The crust is whole grain because we require whole grain. The Doritos, Pop Tarts, donuts, the breading on our chicken are all all whole grain. Okay. Which amazes me that Doritos can has a recipe for whole grains that we serve to our students at school but I don't know if I've seen those in the grocery store yeah same with Pop Tarts. I don't know if I've seen those either all of the cereals that we serve are all reduced sugar. Flavor milk is reduced sugar and so very different than what is being offered at home. But it allows us but our students seem to be enjoying it. Sure. We have a majority that eats um also when we think about those balancing nutrition requirements I guess this kind of we'll go into menu planning as well but we do have a software that helps us with that we are kind of responsible for putting all those nutrients in the software our recipes in the software and then when you put the menus in it calculates those requirements for you so are the calorie ranges correct are your sodium correct do you have the correct portions do you have the correct vegetable subgroups and it allows us it allows comes back and says you're in compliance or not. So sometimes having to move the menu around because most of the requirements are weekly requirements not daily daily requirements. So I'm able to balance those nutrition requirements through through a software so it saves me some time.
SPEAKER_00So you've answered a lot of questions that I had uh I want to talk a little bit about food safety. Okay. That may be a concern for some of our listeners how do you ensure food safety across the district?
SPEAKER_02Yes absolutely absolutely so um one one company that was put into place before I was the food service service director that we use that I think makes a huge difference with our food safety is called Smart Systems.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02They come into each of our schools every six weeks they provide us all of our cleaning equipment they provide training on cleaning up our equipment but one of the one things that I really like that they do in that six weeks visit they do a kitchen review similar to a health department review. So they're checking to make sure that temperatures are being made that everyone's washing their hands that their hair is pulled back that food is dated a lot of those food safety we also get digital thermometers through them. So every time a food is cooked the staff is having to use those digital thermometers I get a report ever all through at the end of the week that shows how many times those thermometers have been used, what food has been overcooked what food has been undercooked thermometers tell you your food is not ready yet. Cook again so it gives you tells you what the next step would be if you're not to where you need to do also in regards to that like I said I visit the schools on a daily daily basis but I also have a monthly school visit checklist that I use on my end as well and I'm I'm kind of looking for the same things as well making sure that food is dated that food is stored properly again that our kitchen staff is washing their hands that they're using gloves and then with that our actual health department requires that at least two people in each kitchen have what is called a blue card and that is a food health food safety health card and that has to be updated every three years. We have to go to a four-hour class and take quite a demanding test and that when the health department comes they check to make sure that those people have those as well. So we have lots of things in place.
SPEAKER_00Yeah it's very thorough I I will say this also again from having been a principal every time I've gone into the kitchen I'm a little bit intimidated because I find it to be one of the cleanest most pristine areas of the school and I know the cafeteria managers are very hyper aware of those spaces and very protective of those spaces. And it's not because they're not warm welcoming people it's they're protecting the safety of our students. Absolutely and they take those roles very seriously. Yes. And I can ensure you that they take that job very seriously. Let's talk a little bit about your food staff.
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh uh what role would you say that a cafeteria staff plays in the school culture and school environment um I would say kind of going back to that need of our students needing food and that being a safety place for them. I feel like the cafeteria is that place during the day where our students are able to recharge or able to refresh throughout the rest of the day they're in class they're learning. So and I also feel like the cafeteria and our cafeteria staff are a safe place and consistency for our students as well. And I think think about the overall culture of a school that's what we want we want our students to feel safe. We want them to know that we're consistently for there for them. And I think that's a great way hopefully that our students can go to the cafeteria and know this is my time to recharge I'm in a safe place I'm getting something that I need.
SPEAKER_00What qualities do you look for when hiring a staff member?
SPEAKER_02This has come as I've experienced this job as I've done more and more interviews the one thing that I now look for is a smile. And that goes with customer service and that goes back to our kids. You know these we have staff that needs to smile at our kids. We have staff that is able to know the kid's name because when they scan their finger their name is on the screen. So customer service is one of now that smile is one of the first things that I look for. You know paving food service experience is great but I feel like that can be taught knowing how to smile and interact I think is one of the best things but I also look for um teamwork I think um you think about food service um food service staff in those kitchens are um more than anybody else in our district are hand in hand for six hours a day you have to work as a team you have to know how to get along and no doubt there's going to be riffs in between every now and then but you've got to know how to get along with people and be able to solve problems within that close environment. And one thing I don't um ask for math skills at an interview but math is a huge part of food service and a huge part of school nutrition. I don't think I thought about that um before I came food service director um but I actually um that was asked of me of a staff member the other day of can you start asking about math skills? And maybe not ask about it but just make them aware that math is part of this job.
SPEAKER_00So I like to throw that in there because we use it you know I'll say too that um adaptability yes I have witnessed that firsthand you have a two hour delay you still have to be prepared for lunch at the same time I know that we've encountered electric outages. Yes we've uh encountered water being turned off so there's been some real curve balls thrown at our cafeteria staff and you and our managers and every time that I've uh walked through those uh I've been so impressed at the level of calm and can do kind of attitude that have been exhibited by our cafeteria staff so kudos to them and yes I think they do a great job and I think they are a safe space not only for kids but I see staff looking forward to their interactions with our cafeteria staff and there's always a check-in you know how's your grandchildren how are things going and it's it's a highlight for many of our people today to be able to have those uh interactions so I appreciate that absolutely very very much.
SPEAKER_02Has there been any change in participation in school breakfast and school lunch uh in your time uh in this position um it it's kind of stayed pretty stagnant I would say um um about 80% of our students eat lunch and about 50% of our students eat breakfast I would love for that to be 100% breakfast especially it amazes me um I'm a breakfast eater I wake up hungry so I don't understand those that don't wake up hungry but um I wish that our breakfast would numbers would go up there's really struggle at middle and high with eating breakfast and I know there's things that go into that so um but you know I know that there are things that um impede our kids from possibly eating at school you know we do have we do have school kids that have severe allergies um and if I was a parent of that kid I probably would want them to pack as well um but you know they have stayed pretty stagnant um you know I would love for them to go up I also I tell our administrators all the time that every kid in our district gets to eat at no cost. That's right you know um and if you're not hungry all of our schools have share tables where a meal can be sat on that share table for a kid that's still hungry. So you know I really encourage for all of our kids to go through the line you know and be able to get a meal that can be put on that share cart for our family for our kids that are still hungry.
SPEAKER_00So I think it's such a wonderful thing. Grand County is the first district that I can recall working in where there's not been uh some issue with student account balances or charging lunches or breakfast because every meal is uh free to students if they choose to participate. And I think what a wonderful program for our community. Yes. Uh it's you know I can remember my grandparents helping out my parents there were three child school age children in my family and those grandparents had to kick in a little extra money just take some of the burden off of my parents to be able to pay for those school lunches. So we are really fortunate uh to to be able to participate yes in the the community nutrition program and and offer those things. So I appreciate um the shy to participate because I think that just helps our program overall with the more participation the better that we are um let's talk about how do you help students try new foods and expand their healthy eating habits.
SPEAKER_02Okay. One thing that was started before I became a food service director at our elementary schools is once during the month we have a try it Friday where the students get to try hopefully a food that they have not tried before and they get to fill out kind of a little survey of how they like that food. Some of them are are a new food that they like some of them not so much but I think just being able to give them a taste of something not saying they have to eat a whole apple or a whole orange or a whole piece of asparagus that's what the kids got to try last Friday. You know it's not as discouraging to them that they're just getting a bite. Throughout my nutrition lessons that I've done um part of all of my nutrition lessons have been trying some healthy foods at the end of the lesson and that's where the student got the black beans we tried black beans the last time that that I came so that gives them another opportunity to try new foods as well. And it does kind of amaze me sometimes that some of our students haven't experienced some of these foods but again that's why we're here as well for them to get to try try some new foods as well. And I think you know our teachers are great encouragers of our kids eating healthy as well. It's amazing how you can just kind of say to a kid I'd really like you to try that today and and they will please please you and take that I know that there's a kindergarten aide at one of the schools that um has gotten all the kindergartners they try it together. Oh nice you know so it's amazing how parents and families and teachers can really just push and encourage students to try or children to try new foods.
SPEAKER_00So I think it's interesting too sometimes students are afraid of foods based on the name of the food or the color of the food or the texture of the food. And so I think that's such a great strategy to say let's just take a bite. You don't have to finish a plate of it. Yep. It's a low risk, low commitment kind of and so I think that's a great example. Yes. Talk to me do you have any success stories that you would like to share with our audience as far as something that maybe you've been a part of or have witnessed or have led.
SPEAKER_02I think one of my biggest goals becoming the food service director is getting the food service department out in the open. I think again as being a teacher I kind of forgot about the importance of food service. I thought that oh that's my break during the day you know I'm gonna get my kids through the line I'm gonna get them eating lunch but I never thought about the importance of food service as well as I didn't know the requirements. So one of my I think my biggest success story or one thing that I've continued to work on is just everyone getting more knowledge of food service department. I meet with each of the administrators one-on-one throughout the summer just to make sure we're all on the same page, make sure that I'm giving them knowledge about maybe changes we're making, changes they're making I meet with each of the school staffs before school begins at one of their back to school trainings just to let them know about programs that we're offering. I have now required all the managers to be at open houses at all of our schools and another thing that I've done is just I've created a number of programs with our students. Each of our schools now have what is called the SNAC Club the Student Nutrition Advisory Council those students are chosen by our FRC directors who know our students the best I feel like and with that group I'm able to teach them about school nutrition and the requirements. And doing these nutrition lessons I think has has put me in the forefront as well at us serving healthy foods them getting to know me that they can come to me for questions. I love it that when a kid comes to me and says Miss Living Good is this food healthy? And I might say well that's a sometimes food that's what I like to call maybe not foods that's not as healthy. Sure because we should be able to eat everything absolutely but some foods we shouldn't be eating every day just sometimes so I I love that students are able to come to me in that regard as well. And I I I love it I had some um kids the other day in elementary school that said Miss Louis I ate a whole bag of grapes. I love grapes now. So it's those kind of stories that that just light me up that I feel like I'm making making a difference.
SPEAKER_00I agree. I think your Snipe Club may be one of your best legacy pieces. I I know of no such other group in any other district that I worked in and I hear about it all the time. So I think that's something that you can be proud of anything else you're proud of that maybe you did not mention uh in that list I mean I I would say I can't I can't be in this podcast or video without saying that I'm not proud of our staff.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02You know we feed about 4,000 meals a day within the the six schools that we have and it's not easy. I mean 4,000 meals that's a lot of meals um our staff is cooking those they're serving those they're feeding our students with a smile it's hard work. Sure. And I know that um some of them come to to to work on a day and say really don't want to be here but they put a smile on for our kids. I also have two great district staff that work in the office and this department cannot run without them as well. So I I'm hoping that um I'm extremely proud of our staff and I'm hoping that I have opened a door that food service is a good place to work.
SPEAKER_00You know and I I think people can just see your energy and enthusiasm and passion for it and your uh dedication to students and making sure that you know every forward-facing thing we do uh reflects a space of safety of health uh of vitality of all those things yeah what are you most excited about do you have any goals or initiatives that you have in the pipeline that you're looking forward to well I was gonna say one thing that I am working on next year is more centered on the staff side of things but um do using a kind of a training notebook for our staff.
SPEAKER_02Our turnover has been less every year but there's a lot when you come into food service that you have to learn. So I am working on kind of a binder that not just will be for our new staff but for our um experienced staff as well so that we're all on the same page. So I'm hoping that that will just you know be able to keep us all on the same page. Everybody will know what is needed of them and what they are required to do. So excited I'm excited about that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah I think anytime you can improve clarity in your team I think the the the more efficient and more effective that team becomes. So I like you I'm working on some systems and some checklist items that I can use within my departments because I think it will just optimize our performance and of course that is always to the benefit of our students and the community that we serve. If listeners could take away one message about school nutrition what would that be?
SPEAKER_02I think the biggest thing is that we every day are feeding our students healthy nutritious food. Again like I said that I think one of the biggest misconceptions you know I know I've I've heard heard parents say things about all you're doing is serving sugary donuts or all you're doing is serving processed food. And again our donuts are whole grain. Our donuts have less sugar we are serving maybe something that you might consider processed in regards to a chicken tender but that chicken tender is a lean protein it is whole grain. So you know I I would love for people to be able to express in the community that the food that is being served at schools is healthy and nutritious.
SPEAKER_00Looking ahead what do you think the future of school nutrition look like in the next few years?
SPEAKER_02I'm saying it's not going away it's not going away um and just like we said it's a building block for our students um it is helping our students learn um and I just think I think it's just gonna get stronger and stronger as well.
SPEAKER_00Well especially with leadership like yours I think that we have a bright future to look forward to anything else you'd like maybe to share with our listeners?
SPEAKER_02I was going to say I think we have some great programs with Food Service in regards to one thing that our families and communities might know is that we do have a menu app that I think you know we're kind of all our information is on our phones these days. It's a great way to just click on that app and click on your child's school to see the menu for the day. All of our menus on the app as well as on the website are connected to our software program so you can click on that menu item and it will show you the nutritionals. Oh wow you know I think that's a great great tool in so many avenues in so many avenues. I also like to say in regards to technology all of our schools have digital menus now inside of their cafeterias they're not just digital menus but they are showing ways to make healthy food. So we have recipe videos that are going on there we have knowledge questions about healthy eating and I think that's another you know our students our eyes are towards technology and TV and I'm hoping that they're catching that as well. So I feel like we've got some great things things in place for our families and our students.
SPEAKER_00Maggie living good thank you for all you do thank you to your staff thank you all for tuning in to another leading to succeed at Grant County Schools podcast and uh we uh hope that you'll tune in next time until then we uh wish you a good day and this is uh Todd Moody and Maggie Living Good signing off thank you thank you very much
