Working for the smiles A look at a day in the life of Sumter School District's ‘lunch heroes’ and changes amid COVID-19 BY BRUCE MILLS Much has been made about K-12 classroom changes during the pandemic, but what about the changes and "new normal" for school food-service workers? The Sumter Item sat down during national School Lunch Hero Day with some of Sumter School District's finest cuisine creators to get a feel for the work and capture all the change that has occurred with food preparation in the COVID-19 era. According to Stacey Francis, the district's food service director, and others, the biggest change in breakfast and lunch meal prep as a result of the pandemic has been prepackaging all items versus placing food on trays as we all remember in the world before COVID-19. Meals are still cooked from scratch though, she said. Francis has worked in food services in the district
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from the ground up over 26 years. She said she began her career in 1995 as a substitute cafeteria worker. Then, Francis was a full-time cashier and later became a school cafeteria manager. Next, she served as one of two district field supervisors, working with numerous schools' cafeterias, before assuming the director position about one year ago. And "what a year it has been," she said about the 2020-21 school year. Schools across the state had about 48 hours to completely change operations when Gov. Henry McMaster by executive order closed all schools for students with the initial spread of the coronavirus in mid-March 2020. Still, Francis noted, schools had to feed the students.
