Lunch Lady

SSOME TEACHERS look at summer as a break from the routine of the school year.

For Sheryl Hardin, a first grade teacher at Dublin’s Daniel Wright Elementary School, it means a different kind of routine.

Hardin lives with her husband, Scott, in Ballantrae. Their son, Nathan, is a business major at The Ohio State University, and their daughter, Kylie, is entering her senior year at Hilliard Davidson High School.

Hardin – along with a group of volunteers – spends her summers running a free summer lunch program, which she basically created and developed, at Meadow Park Church of God near the school district’s boundary on Bethel Road.

A Dublin schools teacher for 15 years, Hardin started as a middle school reading teacher, and then became a reading support instructor, coaching other teachers. She decided to take more college courses so she could be certified to teach first-graders.

“I became fascinated with how much they learn in one year,” Hardin says.

And at Wright with 540 students, many of whom don’t speak English, it’s a huge challenge to teach them everything they need to learn. Many of the children have no school experience, and Hardin and other teachers provide early literacy intervention. The school has five first-grade classes, one more than required for the number of students, creating smaller class sizes and helping students get reading and math support, as well as English as a Second Language.

Wright, located on West Case Road near the Ohio State University Airport, is in the city of Columbus. About 57 percent of the students get free or reduced price lunches during the school year, Hardin says.

When she started teaching at Wright, Hardin learned of a free summer lunch program in Hilliard and felt there should be one for her school’s students. Two years later, she began working on a plan for a similar program in Dublin – one that would not cost Dublin school district taxpayers a dime.

She learned that Northwest Presbyterian Church in Dublin wanted to participate in such a program, as did Meadow Park Church of

Sheryl Hardin

God, which has a center for child and parent activities including an eating area, classrooms, recreational facilities and a teen lounge.

Serve Our Neighbors, a nonprofit ministry of the Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, secures U.S. Department of Agriculture grants for the Hilliard program and one on Columbus’ West Side. It would secure money to buy food for Dublin students, too, Hardin learned. And Northwest Presbyterian pledged to pay for a bus to transport kids daily, while Meadow Park would provide facilities and assist with staffing the program.

Meanwhile, Hardin found volunteers among fellow teachers, students, parents and church members to help make the program flow. She and others knocked on doors and sent flyers home seeking participants. She recruited

Teacher Sheryl Hardin pioneers free summer lunch program

volunteers from fellow teachers and students.

Last summer, the program’s first, it averaged 45 to 50 kids, ages 1 to 18, during its nine-week run. For summer 2012, the number swelled to about 90 during each of its first four days.

On a typical day before starting time, the volunteers prepare. While Hardin places name tags on a table in the lunch room, answers questions and handles other matters without a pause, Kris Baker, a Meadow Park member, prepares for food distribution in the kitchen. Arlene’s Cuisine, a Grandview Heights company that offers USDA-compliant meals, delivers bagged lunches daily. Each day, Hardin estimates the previous day’s need and calls it in. In case there are not enough, Baker prepares some extras using donated non-perishable items.

As the youngsters arrive around noon, a volunteer applies a dab of sanitizer on each pair of hands. Then the children find their name tag, color-coded to signify whether they rode the bus, came with a parent or are on their own. This day, Gina Cornwell and Laura Douce, third grade teachers at Wright, help with check-ins.

All students get the same meal, regardless of age.

“They are less picky when you don’t offer them choices,” Hardin says.

But the meals are grounded in good nutrition. Each contains 2 oz. of meat or meat alternative, 4 oz. each of fruit and vegetable, a serving of grains/bread and 8 oz. of milk.

Volunteers sit with the kids and encourage them to eat. If there are leftovers in the kitchen, they’re placed on the “share table” so older kids can get extras and children of all ages can trade in unwanted items for something they find more appetizing. Those who finish their lunches