Clark-shawnee Local School District gets recognized for breakfast, lunch program
The Clark-shawnee Local School District was honored for their resiliency and work of feeding students.
The district received recognition for the 2021-22 Breakfast & Beyond Program from the Ohio School Breakfast Challenge, the school announced in a release. Districts who receive this award provide an innovative and collaborative approach to maximize student participation and access to the school meal programs.
“We have learned a lot about being flexible — something we will carry forward,” said Alexis Staffan, Food Services Director. “The pandemic brought many challenges that were crippling in the beginning. In reality, it forced us to grow and evolve in unexpected ways and has taught us valuable lessons. Now we are capable of meeting any challenge we face.”
Across the entire district, 38% of the student body participates in the breakfast program and 51% participants in the lunch program, the release stated.
This year, the district experienced record-high participation in the school’s breakfast and lunch programs. In October 2021, staff served over 3,500 additional meals than they served pre-pandemic in October 2019.
Although the district experienced several food challenges, including supply chain issues, student schedule changes and staff shortages, they still worked to make sure all students were fed.
“Our collaborative efforts with the building level staff and administration have been hugely successful and show that bringing our minds together brings out the best in our programs,” Staffan said. “As we move forward, we will continue to work with district and building administration, staff, and teachers, along with our parent organizations, to build our network of support and continue bringing new and fun strategies to our breakfast and lunch programs.”
the care of the professional athlete over the last year, with about 100 of them coming to Dayton in that time to seek care within the health system, Dutton said. In addition, Kettering Health has established itself as a destination for care for people nationwide, Graham said
“Read the newspapers across the country and across the world the last couple of weeks,” he said. “I think everybody knows that we are in the game here and it just so happens that taking care of the active individual is very much at the very nucleus of what we do.”
Talks between the two organizations to form the partnership launched in January right before the Bengals’ headed to the playoffs and the Super Bowl, Dutton said.
One of the areas that will see an immediate impact from the partnership is the NFL’S Crucial Catch “Intercept Cancer” program. The effort focuses on informing, educating and inspiring people to get the necessary cancer screenings that are vital to maintain health.
“We’ll actually be working with the Bengals and the NFL to promote cancer screenings year round,” Dutton said. “Cancer is a year-round issue, so it really needs year-round education. I think that’s one of the most exciting elements of this partnership, because it uses the platform that the NFL has to actually impact people’s lives locally.”
Under the partnership, Bengals’ rookies will visit a local school to participate at an NFL Youth Flag Football event designed to teach children how to play flag football.. Other cooperative initiatives to set the groundwork for a healthier future are planned.
As a health care provider, Kettering Health is “uniquely positioned” to provide those screenings through its comprehensive cancer programs, Dutton said.
Kettering Health will provide in-stadium care at five clinics located throughout Paul Brown Stadium during the upcoming Garth Brooks concerts, and the organizations are collaborating on additional medical coverage for events at the stadium, Dutton said.
Dayton has been a longtime and critical part of the Bengals’ fanbase, according to Elizabeth Blackburn, the franchise’s director of strategy and engagement. The Bengals partnership with Kettering Health unlocks a new level of engagement in the Dayton community, Blackburn said.
One of the things that brought the two organizations together was how similar they are when it comes to goal for the community, she said.
“The brand alignment in our core values, specifically Kettering Health’s passion for innovation and excellence, is something that aligns perfectly with what we here at the Bengals are all about” Blackburn said. “We felt like they have great people and a very impressive leadership team. We think that this partnership has a ton of potential and we’re very excited to get that going.”
Partnerships between sports organizations and health care systems are something that is “pretty well established paradigms,” Graham said.
“They seek true partnership, true alignment philosophically,” Graham said. “You’re looking for supplementary and complimentary ways to celebrate what each individual organization respectively can accomplish, but multiply that by what they can collectively accomplish.”
Both have people working together to inspire people to live healthier lifestyles, he said.
“The synergy that can be generated when two championship organizations come together, that’s what makes this incredibly exciting, not only for our organization, not only just for the Bengals, but the entire citizenry of Southwest Ohio,” Graham said.