New Haven Independent

Citing the importance of the “quality of the people who serve it as well as the quality of the food,” BOE officials and those from ARAMARK, the large subcontractor that manages New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) food services, presented awards to some dozen cafeteria workers, cooks as well as general workers, who demonstrated perfect to near perfect attendance in the first half of the school year. The ceremony took place at a Board of Education meeting Monday.

Cafeteria teams from the Urban Youth Middle School, Hyde Leadership Academy, the Museum School, and the Riverside School all had their staffs show perfect attendance — that is, not a sick day taken from September through December. Depending on the size of the school, a cafeteria team can number from one to six people. Other school food service personnel cited for this kind of punctuality and dedication included those from Edgewood Magnet School, King-Robinson, Clinton, and Hill Regional Career High School.

“You have to love the kids to do this job,” said one of the honorees, Virginia Smith (pictured above in the middle, with her King-Robinson cafeteria team members, Barbara Thompson on her right, and the cook, Sandee Robinson on her left). Thompson has been a cafeteria worker for 28 years. In the last six years she has not missed a day on the job. All are mothers, two are grandmothers, and they see their work as not only feeding kids but relating to them as well.

“I especially love it,” said Robinson when, as the years go by, you see a kid on the street and they say hello to you and say, ‘You were the lunch lady. Yeah, I always liked seeing you there.’”

Is serving food a form of love? a reporter asked. “Yes,” said Smith, “if it’s decent and if it’s served right, appealing. Listen, we treat all the kids with respect. We give it and then we receive it. And the little ones, if you help them reach things, and they smile at you, it makes your day. They call us ‘ma’ or ‘grandma’ and if a kid has been scowling all week or all the semester and then they come ‘round to smiling, well, that can really make your day or your week.”

All three workers cited having, over the years, lost close relatives, a mother, and in some cases their own children to cancer. “I just get up and I go into school,” said Sandee Robinson. “Being with people you work well with and with the kids helps to restore you.”

Renee Oliver, in the red vest, is relatively new to NHPS’s food services, having waited until her kids (David, on the left, Taylor, and Alexandria) were older. Now the kids were out to applaud their mom as she was acknowledged for attendance and dedicated work at both the Edgewood School and Wexler-Grant.

Any red letter moments thus far? “Once one of the little ones came up to me like this,” she said, holding her arms out to indicate the urgent need of a hug. “I didn’t know quite what to do. We’re not supposed to go around hugging the children and all. That’s not part of the assignment. Still, it seemed important. So I waited, and before he left the cafeteria, I went around outside and gave him a hug. Shhh…don’t tell.”

Cafeteria workers arrive every morning around 7:30 and are responsible to prepare breakfast, lunch, and a later meal too if there is an afternoon program. Each child is also clicked in, because statistics are important in order to document continued federal reimbursement support for the food programs for children from poor neighborhoods. In addition to a plaque, each worker receives, said Sandee Robinson, a $75 honorarium. “I told my buddies,” she said, with a wink, “at the beginning of the semester: No absences! And here we are.”

Last month, the BOE honored its custodians for excellent attendance. BOE Chief Executive Officer Robin Golden (pictured here with Chris Avtges, ARAMARK’s general manager for NHPS food services), who filled in chairing the BOE meeting and the ceremony for Superintendent Reggie Mayo, who could not attend, said that Mayo puts a high value on punctuality across all the work categories. The ceremonies are part of an ongoing employee incentive program at the BOE, called “moving from good to great.”