ANDOVER — Andover Public Schools celebrated its food service professionals on School Lunch Hero Day on Friday in the high school cafeteria.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the district made a push to focus on the people who worked to provide healthy and nutritious meals to the students. It has held this celebration for several years.
The school district serves 4,100 lunches and 1,750 breakfasts each school day. Massachusetts school lunches are funded through Universal School Meals. In Andover, students are entitled to free breakfast and lunch daily.
On Friday, Andover High School students filtered into the cafeteria over the course of an hour and 13 minutes during the lunch period.
It was all smiles from the servers, cooks and register attendants as students worked their way through the cafeteria lines.
Those smiles are an every day, welcoming sight for the students from the dedicated group working to cook, prepare and serve meals, lead utility worker Alana Soucy said.
Some of the food service staff arrive for work at 6 a.m. to prepare breakfast and don’t leave until 3 p.m.
School nutrition employees have to also follow federal, state and local regulations to ensure safe and healthy meals are available to students on a daily basis, said Director Gail Koutroubas of Andover Public Schools’ food services.
One of those employees is Soucy, who has worked in food service at Andover Public Schools for 21 years.
“Our vibe has to be good so that it’s passed to the students and they give good vibes back,” Soucy said.
While the special day recognized the food service professionals commitment to preparing healthy food, Soucy said she sees the gratitude from the students daily.
Students write thank-you cards to the cafeteria staff throughout the school year. Those students also have built friendly relationships with the men and women serving and preparing their meals. Soucy pointed out that the students have made an effort to learn the food service workers’ names.
“They’ll come in, call us by name and say, ‘Good morning, Alana,’” she said with a smile. “We love the kids and we always have the music going and try to keep spirits up.”
Friday was Beach Day and decorated for the occasion by the staff who dressed up and set up photo stations for the students.
“We do that here frequently,” Koutroubas said. “We have some really creative people and the kids obviously love it.”
Koutroubas has been with the school district for 20 years, but has worked in school nutrition departments for four decades.
Koutroubas started in Salem, New Hampshire, before finding her way to Andover schools. She plans to retire later this month.
During those 40 years, she’s seen student eating habits change as the food service professionals have shifted to healthier options.
“We try to do less processed foods and more (made from) scratch-cooked foods,” Koutroubas said.
In her time at Andover, she has seen a generation of students attend and graduate. She said there’s been a noticeable change for students wanting to eat healthy during that time.
“They want fruits and vegetables,” Koutroubas said. “It wasn’t like that when I first started.”
Soucy said Koutroubas led the way to focus on made-from-scratch cooking and get away from “freezer-to-tray” cooking.
The move also provided more hours for the food service staff in order to do their jobs.
On School Lunch Hero Day, the lunch crew was doing what it does best, prepping the lunch and making sure it was ready when the bell rang.
“The recognition makes them realize that they really are heroes and what they do every day is important,” Koutroubas said.