School district honors food service ‘heroes’
HEBER — Heber Elementary School District food service employees have been working especially hard lately.
For their efforts, the district recognized all 12 of them in a special way Thursday morning by celebrating School Lunch Hero Day.
Created eight years ago, School Lunch Hero Day is a national celebration honoring the hard-working individuals who prepare healthy meals for students every single day.
The day also recognizes these individuals as “heroes,” as food service employees are categorized as essential employees during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
While the official day is observed on the first Friday of May, HESD got an early start and held its celebration from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday during its usual drive-thru food distribution.
During the distribution, which took place in the parking lot of Heber School, the district set up balloons, posters and even had dancing mascots — all to remind their cafeteria workers how much they’re appreciated.
Bookmarks and pencils promoting School Lunch Hero Day were passed out to each vehicle with every meal.
HESD even asked those who were receiving food Thursday to show their appreciation — a request with which 13-yearold Kimberly Sandoval wholeheartedly complied.
As her mom pulled up to the distribution site, the Heber School student popped out of the sunroof with a brightly colored handmade sign that read, “Thank you.” That same message was repeated in words spelled out in masking tape on the hood of her mother’s car.
With all the extra thanks, HESD’s child nutrition services leader Sandra Villa couldn’t help but feel appreciated.
“For us, it’s like a normal day, a regular day, because this is what we do every day,” she said. “But today, today was a special day.”
Villa, who is in her fifth year as CNS leader, explained that, with these distributions, the school district serves a week’s worth of meals to any local up to 18 years old who stops by.
The district gives out four days’ worth of meals every Thursday (for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday) and three days of meals on Tuesdays.
HESD Food Service Director Anel Navarro said it was especially important to celebrate School Lunch Hero Day this year as the pandemic continues.
“I wanted to do something for my staff because they’re doing an amazing job providing meals to the community,” Navarro said. “There’s a lot of need here right here in Heber. And the community, they’re very happy with this service.”
After all Imperial County public schools were closed in March, HESD food service employees had to adjust from serving in the cafeteria to serving in the parking lot.
That meant the employees also had to adjust from serving their home-style cooked meals to now serving prepackaged meals.
“It’s new, and it’s a lot of work,” Navarro said of the drive-thru distribution.
Navarro said the school district has been extremely supportive in helping the food service department adjust to this new format, as yard duty and maintenance staff has even been called on to help.
“Everyone is doing a little bit of everything, and it’s awesome, because we were very nervous,” Navarro, who is in her 12th year as director, said. “We were stressed. We have had a lot of feelings because this is a new learning experience to all of us.”
HESD Superintendent Juan Cruz said the district’s food service department has been a critical support to the community of Heber. HESD had been serving only five days’ worth of meals. However, after recently being awarded some waivers, the district decided to start serving enough meals for seven days a week.
“We felt that was important because we saw and we’re seeing the need in how many families are utilizing our food support services,” Cruz said.
However, with the addition of these extra meals, the district’s food service employees have had to put forth some extra effort.
“They were really good about supporting the school and the children during school,” Cruz said of the district’s food service employees. “Now they’ve realized that it’s expanded to feed the community, so they just switched the focus that they had from the children to the community.”
The food services employees are used to putting out approximately 1,200 meals for district’s TK to eighth grade students.
“We’re far exceeding that now,” Cruz said.
He said HESD’s food service is currently supporting a number of families from the McCabe Union Elementary School District and some who live in Calexico and El Centro.
All this extra work means Thursday’s celebration was especially needed, said Cruz, who is in his fourth year as superintendent.
“It’s a very small recognition for a phenomenal group of employees that are really a critical support to our entire community,” he said.