This school cafeteria lady made a big difference to the children's lives, with a simple positive message

Working at an elementary school can be as rewarding as you make it. Stacey Truman, Kingston Elementary School’s cafeteria manager has been with the school for over ten years and counting. The Virginia Beach school has great reason to be proud of their employee, as she is a huge proponent of positive reinforcement and bringing light to children. Stacey has found a wonderful way to get messages to her students every single school day. Her creative thinking and positive messaging are a rare spin on a cafeteria lady and she knows that. Her hard work to bring love and confidence to the children of her school not only got noticed within the school’s halls and administration but have since gone viral and noticed by people around the globe. There is more to lunchtime than food at this school, as Stacey made sure of. The kids that attend the school are in very delicate years in their development and Stacey knew that if she could just reach them with positive messages, she could make a difference for them.

Background

The reason Stacey went to the lengths that she did to bring about positivity in her school was due to her own hard time during the very same age range. When Stacey was nine years old her parents announced that they were getting a divorce.

Her painful memories of that time brought her to the decision to spread happiness and messages of good cheer to the boys and girls that walk into her lunchroom every day.

Stacey’s past

The divorce of Stacey’s parents threw her life into disarray. As a result of the divorce, Stacey and her two sisters and mother moved in with her grandmother. There were both financial and emotional hardships that they had to go through and Stacey did not want that kind of hardships for her family when she had one.

She wanted to give her two daughters a better life than her own. Stacey is married to Zachery and has two girls, Mackenzie and Kayleigh, who are nine and ten respectively. They are at the very age that she was when her parents divorced.

Cafeteria gig

Stacey started her journey at the elementary school over ten years ago. The student count is on average around 500 children, with approximately 19 children per teacher. The school prides itself on its academic achievements in their students and the high teaching standard that it holds its teacher too.

Stacey’s ride to work is a serious one, as she lives in a different state technically. Stacey lives in North Carolina, and the school is in Virginia – the border stands between them. Stacey gets up ay 4:45 AM every workday to make sure she arrives at the school on time.

Tasks

Stacey has a nearly one-hour drive to the school from her home every day. She has to be on the premises before everyone else as she is the one who unlocks the doors and turns on all of the lights throughout campus. As soon as Stacey gets into work she looks at her emails and starts her day preparing breakfast and lunch for the school’s students and faculty.

She has two helpers for this great task, yet she has also managed to give herself another important job that she does just for her students and sees as one of the most important bits.