CCSD Celebrates 2023 School Nutrition Teams of the Year

The Cherokee County School District is celebrating the first-ever winners of its new School Nutrition Team of the Year awards!

The new awards program gives cafeteria teams the opportunity to win prizes by achieving specific goals, called the “Six Servings of Success,” related to improving their service to students, teachers and staff.

For all of last school year, the teams at each school cafeteria worked to earn top scores for health inspections, employee satisfaction, program participation (number of students who purchase meals or receive free or reduced-price meals), inventory levels, budgeting and promotions.  

The elementary school team and the middle school/high school/center team with the best scores were named the winners and announced today at the department’s annual back-to-school training day for all of its staff.

Clark Creek Elementary School STEM Academy is the elementary division winner, and E.T. Booth Middle School is the middle school/high school/center division winner.

The Clark Creek cafeteria team is led by manager Linda Page and assistant manager Patricia Millwood and is made up of: Rebecca Anderson, Christina Carter, Martha Dupree, Consuelo Guzman, Laura Holizna, Dania Reed and Gaylor Vines.

The E.T. Booth cafeteria team is led by manager Erika Smith and assistant manager Tammy Poulnot and is made up of: Imelda Alcantara-Martinez, Diana Cole, Cassandra Corey, Tracey Douglas, Judit Hailu, Lisa LaCotti, Carmen Parkoo and Savannah Rolfe.

“Congratulations to Clark Creek and E.T. Booth for winning this very competitive new award – we’re proud of all you did last school year to earn this recognition,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian V. Hightower said.  “Our School Nutrition program is critically important to our overall success.  Our students need nutritious meals to be happy, healthy and ready to learn, and our School Nutrition team exceeds those expectations.  I’ve volunteered on the cafeteria line and have seen how hard they work.  I’ve also seen how their smiles, kind words and fun activities like staff dress-up days make mealtime even more special for our students.”  

The winning team members each earned a $100 Visa gift card and special shirt with costs for these gifts and an honor banner for their cafeterias sponsored by the Cherokee County Educational Foundation.  Each winning team also earned a commercial immersion blender ($800) for their school kitchen from PMR, as well as two different commercial blenders ($500 each) from The Hansen Group.  

Each member of the winning teams additionally received a “swag bag” with a Metro MightLites insulated food carrier ($125) from CGA Reps Food Service Equipment, $15 Starbucks gift card from PACE Reps and gifts from Credit Union of Georgia, Nothing Bundt Cakes Woodstock, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Cobb EMC, Chick-fil-A of Canton and Eggs Up Grill.  Credit Union of Georgia also provided breakfast for all 300 School Nutrition employees at today’s training event.

The new awards program is in addition to CCSD’s Support Staff Employees of the Year program, which all non-educators, including School Nutrition workers, are eligible to win for their school.  School Nutrition Executive Director Tina Farmer proposed the Team of the Year awards program to encourage further program improvement and provide additional recognition for employees.

“I appreciate the dedication of our School Nutrition teams and I am always proud of their work,” Ms. Farmer said.  “The School Nutrition Team of the Year award is an opportunity to showcase and recognize the great work that our School Nutrition teams do for our students.”

Ms. Farmer said the competition was close, noting that most schools averaged 100% on their health inspections and work hard to ensure efficient inventory and budgeting.  Promotional activities, she said, put both teams over the top thanks to their creative campaigns to celebrate new menu items and encourage student meal purchases.

“The two winning schools truly went above and beyond with promoting their school nutrition program to their students,” she said.

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