Proper nutrition: Livesay honored for teaching good eating habits
Her efforts to teach students the benefits of proper nutrition have earned Hickory Creek Elementary cafeteria manager Melissa Livesay the highest honor a school food service professional can attain.
The Louise Sublette Award is given annually by the American School Food Service Association (ASFSA) and recognizes the importance of those closest to the food service program – the managers and food service assistants.
“Not only has Melissa Livesay provided dedicated service to the profession, but she has also shown a commitment to the advancement of the child nutrition profession and industry. This award speaks to that dedication,” said Marcia L. Smith, ASFSA president.
Winners of the award, named after a food service pioneer here in Tennessee, have completed a project of their own choosing which enhances the food service in their school or improved nutrition and health for the students they serve.
Livesay’s award-winning project centered around her teaching of nutrition in general, and her formation of Hickory Creek’s Nutrition Advisory Council (NAC), in particular. The advisory council is made up of approximately 20 fourth- and fifth-graders who, in addition to advising Livesay and her staff on menu selections, study the benefits of eating healthy and the role the food service department plays in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
“I plan to keep thinking of new ways to teach our students the benefits of healthy living until it becomes a lifestyle for them,” Livesay said.
For their big project, the advisory council members put on a play for their peers this spring emphasizing the importance of healthy eating. Entitled “5 a Day Live,” the play featured NAC members, dressed as fruits and vegetables, who informed their fellow students of the necessity of eating five servings of fruit and vegetables a day.
Other projects engineered by Livesay to teach students the benefits of proper nutrition include teaching a nutrition education class to the school’s third-graders and giving a fruit and vegetable taste test to the school’s kindergartners.
For winning the prestigious award she received an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2002 American School Food Service Association National Conference, held last month in Minneapolis, Minn. While there she accepted the award and, with Centertown Elementary School cafeteria manager Mae Belle Lance, attended a number of school food service sessions and workshops where she learned many innovative new ideas.