Staff Appreciation
School food teams go above and beyond to ensure that their communities have access to healthy food.
With constant changes and challenges that can happen in the school food world, school food professionals are able to manage everything from shifting schedules, sick colleagues and family members, long hours, and concern about students, all while trying to maintain positive attitudes and a passion for their work.
In this section, we cover tips and tricks for valuing and recognizing team members, keeping morale high, hosting team building activities, and avoiding burnout at work.
Staff Appreciation
School food teams go above and beyond to ensure that their communities have access to healthy food.
With constant changes and challenges that can happen in the school food world, school food professionals are able to manage everything from shifting schedules, sick colleagues and family members, long hours, and concern about students, all while trying to maintain positive attitudes and a passion for their work.
In this section, we cover tips and tricks for valuing and recognizing team members, keeping morale high, hosting team building activities, and avoiding burnout at work.
Use Your Resources
While school food program budgets are tight, there are still tons of low-cost ways to support your team.
- Does one of your cooks have a signature recipe? Name it after them on the menu.
- Use the program’s product rebate points to redeem for items to give away.
- Write a personal thank you note to your team members. Make it personal by recognizing a specific time they went above and beyond.
- Recognize team members in staff meetings. This can be a team activity where staff can call attention to the positive things their peers are doing.
- Feature a team member on your bulletin board each week with a specific highlight about their work.
- Create and distribute trophies/certificates. Make it a fun team activity to think up different trophy titles, like “Best Customer Service,” “Funniest Line Cook,” or “Most Missed Smile”.
- Reach out to vendors to see if they could provide samples or share products with staff.
Community Outreach
Existing marketing channels can be a great way to engage your community in support of team members. Many families would love to reach out and thank their favorite lunch lady. Here are a few ideas:
- Feature an Employee of the Day, Week, or Month on your program’s website, social media, and/or newsletter. Make sure to write about why you are recognizing them.
- Ask teachers to include a letter writing activity in their curriculum to get this ready for School Lunch Hero Day in May!
- Use your newsletter or social media to encourage kids and families to write individual letters to a team member. Or have kids sign a large poster board to thank their school food team.
Celebrate
Celebrations are great ways to break up the day-to-day of school food service. Recognize birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, and the entire team with these ideas.
- Birthdays and holidays are a great time to show your appreciation! Flowers, baked goods, and silly hats can help lend a festive mood. If your team is comfortable with it, you can ask people on social media or your newsletter to wish a staff member a happy birthday.
- Host a socially-distanced staff appreciation event. You can order food or host a bagged lunch picnic (weather permitting).
- Don’t miss anniversaries - take the time to acknowledge milestones in your relationship.
- Hold an employee pot luck where employees get to show off their cooking and everyone can enjoy a meal together.
- Ice cream socials are fun and inexpensive ways for teams to socialize. Mix it up by getting a few ice cream bases and a variety of toppings for staff to make their own sundaes.
Staff appreciation is directly tied to workplace morale and job satisfaction. Taking the time to appreciate your staff members’ hard work can increase engagement, foster creativity, boost motivation, and maintain positive relationships.
Staff appreciation is directly tied to workplace morale and job satisfaction. Taking the time to appreciate your staff members’ hard work can increase engagement, foster creativity, boost motivation, and maintain positive relationships.
Staff Competitions
One of our favorite ways to create a positive work environment is hosting staff competitions. Challenge your team members to a bake-off, walking step challenge, or best photo competition.
Not sure what competition to host? Ask your team! Send an email or take a poll to learn about competitions people would like to participate in. By getting your team involved in the competition development, you can identify people who may be interested in helping you host the competition.
Most importantly, keep it fun and remember to recognize everyone who participates!
Staff Competitions
One of our favorite ways to create a positive work environment is hosting staff competitions. Challenge your team members to a bake-off, walking step challenge, or best photo competition.
Not sure what competition to host? Ask your team! Send an email or take a poll to learn about competitions people would like to participate in. By getting your team involved in the competition development, you can identify people who may be interested in helping you host the competition.
Most importantly, keep it fun and remember to recognize everyone who participates!
