Here Connie is promoting the 2009-2010 GSNA theme at a local meeting.

Leanell Nelson
Manager - Hand in Hand Primary - Thomas County
GSNA District Two

School promotions is what this Manager is all about!  She is so creative and gets involved with every school activity possible.
She is dedicated to her profession and goes above and beyond her call of duty.  She and her entire staff came in on a Saturday and baked Cinnamon Rolls for Photos with Santa.

Other Activities:
Baking Cookies for Bee Partners each Month
Nutrition Education: Little Organ Annie
Active in Local and District Chapter

Millie Pitts
Assistant Manager Trainee, Fort Middle School - Muscogee County 
GSNA District Three 
Millie is a great supporter of the organization. She can always be counted on to sell tickets for the fish fry or chicken supper that is held annually in Muscogee County and she attends most meetings. The Manager at Fort Middle School Joan Cardona says Millie is responsible, dependable and reliable plus she was recognized at our annual banquet for prefect attendance. Millie goes the extra mile for school nutrition and the association.

TanShelia Harris
Manager, Princeton Elementary - DeKalb County
GSNA District Four

Tansheila Harris is an outstanding nutrition manager at Princeton Elementary of the DeKalb County School System.  Tansheila is always doing exceptional things to highlight nutrition within her school.  She has a passion for educating students, parents and administrators about nutrition and wellness.  She is always looking for ways to draw attention to our department and the School Nutrition Association. She has been extremely busy impacting her school and community by spotlighting School Nutrition.  She conducted a kitchen safety training class for students 3rd thru 5th grade.  She spoke to the Healthy Eating Club that is at her school.  She taught the students how to eat healthy and make healthy food choices.  She decorated her cafeteria with different themes for Grandparents Day, Thanksgiving Day Meal, and Christmas Meal.  During National School Lunch Week she did various activities with the students asking trivia questions about nutrition.  Winners were awarded prizes. 

She is President Elect for the Fourth District.  She is the legislative chairperson for the local association.  She has been a Star Club member of SNA for the past two years, recruiting members to the association diligently.  She is currently involved in GSNA's Leadership Academy. 

Parents and teachers are always commenting on how dedicated Ms. Harris is to the school, the school system and the nutrition association. 

Tansheila Harris is definitely one of our Best Performers.

Jamie Yarbrough
Assistant Manager, Sixes Elementary School - Cherokee County 
GSNA District Seven

Jamie came to  Cherokee County two years ago and nothing has been the same since!
She goes above and beyond the call of an ordinary day.
She has been asked to dress in costumes, do demo's with the kids and many other duties and not once has she ever complained about anything.
She always arrives to work before the scheduled time and always with a smile.
She makes each one of the kids feel special. Each and every day she comes up with new ideas to make things fun and exciting for the kids and other staff members.
We are truly blessed to have a great person in Cherokee County!

Kathy is very hard worker and she love what she does for all her kids at school.When she not working she's thinking about what she can do to make itbetter for her stuff and her kids. She takes her own money and buys stufffor the school cafe and don't even thinks nothing about. Doing her job makeher happy and it shows!!!!!

Beverly Bagley
Manager, Blackshear Elementary School - Pierce County
GSNA District Eight

An Oscar-winning performance began on the day that nutrition assistant Beverly Bagley, asked, "Is there any place that I can be of more help to this program?"  The answer was "Yes, would you like to help start up the first summer feeding program in our county?"  This was the beginning of a star performance.  Mrs. Bagley jumped into the unknown of creating and managing a program that was not in existence in our county with the most positive, fun loving, energetic, efficient attitude ever.  Her insight into potential problems and how to solve them was extraordinary.  She carried the management load like a seasoned veteran even though she had surgery and recovered in the office chair for two weeks and also completed two college courses with A's.  At the end of the program she completed the project with a power point presentation and assisted in delivering an informative presentation to several community organizations about how beneficial a summer feeding program can be.

Her performance helped to pave the way in August for her to become the new manager for the largest school in our system with approximately 1250 students.  Mrs. Bagley immediately began working with students during the meal service times.  She included questions on what foods children ate at home and what foods did they eat when they ate out.  Mrs. Bagley began training employees on pleasant ways to greet children.  Placement of specific employees on the serving line was a key customer service requirement for her staff.  Mrs. Bagley set rules for herself, she ate at the table with children especially when students were visually in need of attention or where there were several lunch boxes.

Mrs. Bagley's work ethic exceeds the norm.  She works nights to set up work schedules that will produce more efficient techniques in food preparation and personnel training.  She researched methods of training and began a weekly "talk sheet" which is now done by every manager, listing improvements that their individual staff needs. This paper is posted in the kitchen for employees to read and sign.  The idea grew and is now compiled into system wide monthly trainings by the director providing repetitive and reinforced training for all employees.

She studies menus at home to set up new ideas for service.  Mrs. Bagley worked with the principal to enlist a gifted class and the teacher to take surveys during lunch and to compile the results. A new menu choice "Southwest Bar" was set up when she realized that these items were many of the student's favorites.  The new bar is serving approximately 130 students daily, without an increase in labor.
Mrs. Bagley is our "BEST PERFORMER"

Marilyn Bennett
Manager, Cook County High School - Cook County
GSNA District Eight

Mrs. Marilyn Bennett is a Manager at Cook High School for 17 years and worked for Cook County Schools for 36 years. This year she opened a newly designed High School.
She has taken a new food service concept and made it worked for the Cook County Schools serving 5 different menus per day and preparing the food on the line for each student as they came to get their meal. Participation has gone from 71.5 % last year to 82.3% this year. Marilyn is a great supporter of the organization of the chapter. She has been the Chapter Treasurer for 2 years. Marilyn goes the extra mile for School Nutrition and the Association. Marilyn has taught the one class to the new Employees for the past two years. She is a great motivator with the new and old Employees. She makes all the menus for all four Schools in our County. Marilyn is extraordinary in solving problems with the menus and the staff. She is a very positive & efficient person to work with.
She helped organize the Relay for life last year for the 1st time made $3.000. And she loves to help with all our fun raisers. She is a motivator with all the Ladies in the association and in her own kitchen.

Linda Wright
Manager , Primary School - Bacon County
GSNA District Eight

Linda Wright is the President of the Bacon Co. Local Chapter. Linda is picked for the Best Performer because she goes out of her duties of work each day to enunciate anything that will help our School Nutrition Program. Linda is a Manager at the Primary Lunchroom. She is also the School Level Chair for GSNA. She decorates the bulletin board  in the cafeteria each month with the theme that fits it. She works with the Media Specialist and prepares foods to go with the books the students are doing .Ex: Polar Express: We have a day in the cafeteria that she prepares and serve Hot Chocolate for Breakfast and Hollywood Squares for Lunch, these are the things they have on the polar Express. Johnny Appleseed Day she prepares all different  kinds of Apples to show students  the many different kinds. Then she pick's some kids to plant the seeds and they get to water them and see if they come up.

Linda attends all local and District meetings. She will help wherever she's needed.
Linda loves her job and loves the students, teachers and staff. Linda sees personally to her diabetic students to make sure they have what's needed for them. She also gives out hugs to a lot of students. She does customer service beyond what is expected, she sometimes fixes hair for students that's not fixed in the mornings. As a Team player her job doesn't only consist of staying in the office, she also makes sure the food is prepared to taste the same each time. She works with the ladies in the cafeteria to prepare food as well as show them shortcuts and faster ways to get the job done. Linda goes to the NAC class and do taste testing and the student get to do lots of hands on things with her. The NAC class also has a lot of input in the menu items we have. They tell her the items the students will eat the best. Plus the NAC class gets to taste the items first, then tell all the other students how good it is.

Linda started a Wellness Program at her church called "YoGod Ministries" they meet once a week; she incorporates wellness/exercise, daily scriptures, prayer, and healthy eating habits in the program. We share healthy recipes each week. We sometimes prepare a recipe to sample.
Linda and a co worker also attends the local Gym "Anytime Fitness", for exercise classes 3 times a week.

Celeste Williams
Assistant Manager, Coffee Middle School - Coffee County
GSNA District Eight 

Celeste Williams, Assistant Manager at Coffee Middle School goes beyond the call of duty. 

• Celeste works in the manager’s office assisting with paper work and other duties.  She arrives at work early and makes sure all of the equipment is turned on and working when the manager and other employees arrive.
• Celeste  works well with the staff, and strives to keep their morale high.
• She works well with the students and encourages them to eat in the cafeteria.  She looks for ways to encourage them to participate in the program.
• Celeste tries to find ways to make tasks easier for the food assistants.  She is a team player.  She encourages the other employees  to dress up for special events throughout the year.
• Celeste “revived” the spirit of our Chapter Christmas Party.  We have had minimal attendance for the past 3 or 4 years.  This year we had about 75% turnout.  Many spouses also attended  It was a very festive affair!
• Celeste does the bulletin boards in the cafeteria of Coffee Middle School.
• Celeste is the President of our local Chapter.  She and the President-Elect took a personal day off in order for our chapter to be able to have a (fundraiser)  booth during the National BBQ Festival in Douglas in late October.
• Celeste has started a NAC group with the students at the Middle School.   The group sponsored a food drive at Thanksgiving and Christmas for needy families.  They also entered a float in the Douglas Christmas Parade.
• Celeste asked the Mayor of Douglas to sign a proclamation for National School Lunch Week.
• Celeste attends all local & district meetings.
• She never complains about what is going on, even if it means coming in early or staying late….her theory is “we are going to get through it with the help of the good Lord”. 

Theresa Brown
Manager, West Fannin Elementary - Fannin County School System
GSNA District Nine

Theresa is always ready to help us girls out in the kitchen without any hesitation. We have been working with 2 subs for the past 2 weeks and it so pleasant to watch her train them and help out where needed. Theresa always has a smile on her face and a bounce in her step.

June Blake
Manager, Auburn  Elementary School - Barrow County School Nutrition
GSNA District Nine

Barrow County is proud to elect June Blake, Manager of Auburn Elementary School, as our Best Performer.

June is constantly changing out her serving lines and bulletin boards in the cafeteria to entice her little ones to eat.   She makes a lot of her supplies, shops yard sales and clearance racks in stores and sometimes even brings things from home in order to complete a theme or idea on her bulletin boards or lines.  June even presented at a work shop at state conference, showing the attendees how to decorate on a budget and how to get the most bang for your buck.

She attends all of Ninth District meetings, state conferences, has attended Legislative Action Conference, and the only reason she has not attended a national conference is because she cooks 3 meals a day, 7 days a week, for her church’s youth camp every summer and has been doing this for many, many years.  She also uses the skills she learned in the school nutrition “business” to prepare meals every Wednesday night at her church (for hundreds of people).  You better not come into her kitchen without a hair-net and gloves !!!

 When (and if) she has any free time, she relaxes by painting.  She painted a lighthouse and seascape for GSNA’s Silent Auction the last time the conference was held in Jekyll Island.  Last year she painted “Snow Day at UGA “, which depicted the UGA arches covered in snow.  If I need anything done, I know that I can call June and the answer will be “yes, I will”.

 June is thinking of retiring next year, and if she does, we will truly miss one of our “best performers”.

Grovetown High School, Columbia County
Susan Hannon, School Nutrition Manager, Grovetown High School and staff
GSNA District Ten

Opening new schools is not new to School Nutrition Manager, Susan Hannon.  Grovetown  High School is her third.  She opened River Ridge Elementary in 2005, Cedar Ridge  Elementary School in 2007, and rescued a floundering high school in 2008.  She also trained replacement managers at each school before she left. 

Grovetown High School opened on August 10, 2009 with 1100 students and 12 SNP staff members. There are four serving lines and one fast service area.   There were many obstacles to their success. None of the employees had worked together and some had never worked in School Nutrition.  Susan organized and trained as they began the new school year.  She is a working manager and can perform every job in the kitchen so on-the-job training is one of her strengths.  The school has a new Point of Sale program that utilizes touch screen computers, so everyone had to be trained or retrained to be a cashier.  

The kitchen is very large and the distance between serving lines and the back of the house is tremendous.  Connie Chaney, Assistant Manager, brought her husband’s walkie talkies to work to see if they could be used to communicate from the serving lines to the kitchen.  They were successful and now all of the school systems’ high schools have walkie talkies.  

The school makes 40-50 pizzas everyday.  Susan and her staff have creative ideas and are always trying new items to entice their students to participate.  They have made calzones, baked spaghetti, Philly cheese steak subs, etc.  They are always looking for new ideas and constantly ask their customers for suggestions.  

The school conducted a survey of the students and asked them to list the top 10 things they liked the best about GTH.  Number one was the teachers and number two was the food!!  I think this speaks volumes for the success of Susan and her staff at Grovetown High School.