Award Winning Board Night

Rhonda Cooper, Nutrition Department Head presents the State Award for Central office Staff Support to Alison Strait.

Alison showing Benjamin and me her State Award.

I don't normally go to School Board meetings, or any other government meetings.  I probably should, but somehow I don't seem to do it.  The level of dedication to organization and Robert's Rules of Order are plain to see in the professional conduct of the meeting.  It's light years different than the chaos that reigns when I run a writer's guild meeting, which might as well be run by the Marx Brothers.

Benjamin and I had a very special reason to come out to the recent meeting of the Pierce County Board of Education.   One of the people that would be recognized for their service to the system was going to my wife, Alison.  Both Benjamin and I were there to receive her well-deserved honor.

She won the State award for Nutrition Central Office Staff.  And by State, I mean Georgia.  All of it.  The entire state.  From Albany to Augusta, from Resaca to Valdosta, and every point in-between.

The nutrition department head, Rhonda Cooper, gushed about the wonderful work Alison has done, and with the incredibly positive spirit she does it with.  She not only does exemplary work in nutrition accounting, she also steps up and helps others in the office with any tasks they need help with, accounting or otherwise.  She works with nutrition staff in the schools, kindly helping them to do their jobs better, and winning friends and positive alliances along the way.  She is a favorite among administrators, nutrition personnel, teachers and parents.  Not an easy feat to pull off, but she does it, respectfully and compassionately.

School lunchrooms have a reputation, not all of it positive.  It's hard to prepare food that is nutritionally sound and also acceptable to hundreds and hundreds of students with very individual tastes.  But Pierce County is sensitive to that, and have made extraordinary steps to do just that, and to increase it's supply of locally grown items, and to prepare as many recipies as possible in the school cafeteria.

School nutrition departments have as many or more bureaucratic regulations as any part of school, both in how food is prepared and served, and in how the bookkeeping and accounting must be done.  Free and reduced meals are a blessing for many students, but it is also a program that demands a lot of paper work and management.  Both Rhonda and Alison have managed that about as well as anyone in Georgia.

But their work is never done, and it never stays the same.  Legislators and regulators are constantly changing and shifting the rules.  The current administrations, both in Atlanta and D.C., are particularly active in making changes.  Food standards, who can or cannot get a free or reduced meal, what funding will be available, all this and more may be changing a great deal in the near future.

Whatever changes come, I can promise you this.  Alison and the entire nutrition staff will be dedicated to serving students with the very best meals that they can, at the most economical cost that they can.

Benjamin and I are very proud of Alison and her achievements. Now the whole community is more aware of what we already knew - she is a very special and wonderful person.