Food and Nutrition Service Employees Saluted for Dedication

MCPS has more than 800 Division of Food and Nutrition Services (DFNS) staff who work to provide more than 90,000 meals every day in its schools. The team includes staff who prepare meals at a central production facility, warehouse staff and truck drivers who ensure food is delivered to schools, cafeteria workers and managers who prepare and serve meals on-site, and an office team supporting them all. These school nutrition heroes ensure MCPS students have meals to support them in their academic excellence, year round.

School Nutrition Employee Appreciation Week concluded on May 3, with a ceremony honoring 12 distinguished school nutrition heroes. Each of these recipients has been with MCPS at least five years and exemplifies service to students. Honorees were:

• Yi "Connie" Huang, cafeteria manager, Clarksburg High School
• Celina Diaz, cafeteria manager, Hallie Wells Middle School
• Brandi Burkart, food service field manager, Division of Food and Nutrition Services
• Suha Barbari, cafeteria manager, Argyle Middle School
• Devi Rambarran, cafeteria manager, Sligo Creek Elementary and Silver Spring International Middle schools
• Derrick Prather, operations assistant, Warehousing and Distribution
• Erika Phan, food service satellite manager, Strawberry Knoll Elementary School
• Andy Cheung, cafeteria manager, Lakelands Park Middle School
• Mufang "June" Chen, cafeteria worker, Francis Scott Key Middle School
• Saly Coulibaly, cafeteria manager, Takoma Park Middle School
• Wendy Stellakis, cafeteria manager, Winston Churchill High School
• Fantao Hu, central production facility worker, Central Production Facility

Last school year, more than 16 million meals were served to MCPS students in the national school lunch and breakfast programs, the after-school snack, at-risk supper and summer meals programs.