Cumberland County Lunchroom School staff in all three schools, do a fantastic job of caring for and feeding our students healthy and nutritious meals. However, it can be challenging for them firstly because the County has a 72% percent of students on free and reduced meal plans so this limits the money spent by schools on food. Also food service staff are in the low income bracket and found it difficult to manage their own meals with the times they have to be at school preparing students meals.

The Cumberland County Extension Family and Consumer Science Agent and the SNAP-Ed Assistant decided to approach the Schools Food Service director to see if we could go into the schools during the staff’s break periods once a week to hold the Smarter Lunchroom program with FCS Agent while the SNAP –Ed Assistant held the Nutrition education program with the staff. They were very excited for the programs as the staff rarely had any training or support from any other school staff but felt their input to the school foods programs was a vital component of the students’ daily life. One thing that resonated with us was most said that they had the most effect on the younger students eating healthy because the older the students got the less often they would try a new food. This could be said for the staff themselves some rarely ate fresh fruits and vegetables but by the end of the program 82% had increased their daily consumption of fresh fruit and 58% increased their vegetable consumption.

The staff felt this training was a benefit to them personally and that it would help them in their positions. They were correct as we approached the end of their programs the SNAP-Ed Assistant received a phone call from the County Board of Education Food Services Director asking for information on the components of the program the staff had completed as she was having these recognized as credit for training completed for the staff from the Education Department on things like Food Preparation, Food Safety, Menu Planning and more.

On a personal level the staff realized that they did have to take care of themselves and families first and 82% increased their daily exercise. The staff realized that children learn from all adults in their life whether that is a parent or the teacher or lunchroom lady it all matters what we show our children. The future of our county schools food programs are looking much healthier now.