Leelanau Essentials—the workers who keep us safe during the pandemic. Meet the Glen Lake School food service staff
From staff reports
When Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that all Michigan schools would shut down on March 16 (and remain closed until the end of the school year) to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Glen Lake Community Schools already had a plan in place to deliver free breakfasts and lunches to families of its students who qualify for free- or reduced-price meals. According to superintendent secretary Bethany Pousho, this includes approximately 25% of Glen Lake’s 700 students. Ever since mid-March, school bus drivers have been delivering breakfasts and lunches on all school days, Monday-Friday (not including Spring Break). Anyone in the school district in need of free breakfast and lunch can sign up for deliveries by calling assistant food service director Becca Chavalia in the school kitchen at 231-334-3061 ext. 503.
What does this work mean to you?
“Right now my job has changed so much in how it is performed but the purpose has not changed,” says Glen Lake food service director John Fields. “Feed the hungry one way or another.”
“During this time, people have to shift gears from the norm, I truly believe that what we are doing is our purpose right now,” says assistant food service director Becca Chavalia.
What does the work mean to the community?
“In times of uncertainty, no one should ever feel hungry or alone,” says Fields. “While we can not spend time with our kids, by providing meals we remind them that they are not forgotten and they are important to us.”
“Food is essential,” says Chavalia. “It’s one less worry that we can take off of someone’s plate.”
How has your life changed during the pandemic?
“When expectations and routine are changed without warning, all we are left with is our values to fall back on,” says Fields. “If nothing else my values are crystal clear to me now more than ever.”
“It has allowed a ‘reset’,” says Chavalia. “Small things are much more appreciated now and it is a good reminder not to take the simplest things for granted.”
About our Leelanau Essentials series
They are doctors, nurses and healthcare workers. They stock the shelves, slice the deli meat, and run the registers at grocery stores, they deliver your meals curbside, delicately pinching the paper bag between gloved fingers. They are the EMS first responders, the firemen and the cops. They are the distilleries that turn spirit byproduct into hand sanitizer. They drive semi trucks and delivery trucks and bring packages and food. They are postal workers. They run the food banks and the church pantries. They keep the school cafeterias open to make sure the needy families get breakfasts and lunch. They pick up our recycling and our garbage. They watch our children, and they care for our elderly. They are the farmworkers—both with and without documents—who harvest our crops.
Even as our community and our society shut down and we stay home to socially distance ourselves, these essential workers of Leelanau County show up every day and walk to the front lines to fight for us in this world war against a murderous pandemic. Let us honor our Leelanau Essentials.
Dear readers—who would you like to nominate for our Leelanau Essentials profile series? Do they have a compelling story they’re willing to share? Have they proven themselves essential to the community in recent weeks? Can they send us a photo of themselves and answer the following questions: What does my job mean to me? What does it mean to the community? How has my life changed during the coronavirus? Send submissions to editorial@GlenArborSun.com.
