Millersburg second-graders get holiday lunch surprise

Millersburg Elementary students line up for lunch every school day, but on Thursday, Nov. 21, the Millersburg second-graders were in store for a lunch of a very different kind.

When second-grade teacher Joan Carmel came up with the idea of creating a Thanksgiving family-style dinner for the entire second-grade class about a month prior to the event, she called Dawn Martin, West Holmes School District director of food services, to present her idea.

Martin immediately fell in love with the thought, despite knowing it would take a great deal of work and coordination with others to pull it off.

However, after hearing the jubilation in the voices of the children and seeing how much fun they were having, it left little doubt in Martin’s mind that this was something that could definitely start a tradition all around the district.

“We figured why not give it a shot, and initially we were thinking the entire school, but that was just too much, so we decided to just try one grade to see how it went,” Martin said. “What we would like to do is to spread this throughout the district in the elementary schools and do a different day for each grade level.”

Martin liked the idea because she realized some children don’t get to experience the joy of sitting around a table family style where food is passed around and everyone shares from the same serving plates and bowls.

“We want every child to experience the kind of joy that involves sitting with others and passing the food, and this is a sit-down meal unlike any they would have ever had here at school,” Martin said. “We were so excited when the school came to us asking if we would have an interest.”

For this particular Thanksgiving feast, the school supplied chicken legs, which were as close as they could come to turkey drumsticks, as well as homemade stuffing balls, green beans, apples and a sweet-potato casserole for dessert, something the kids had never tasted before.

In anticipation of the big event, the second-grade students designed a lot of the Thanksgiving decorations and centerpieces that lined the tables. The Millersburg Elementary lunch staff also put in plenty of time preparing for the feast, getting as much prepared ahead of time as possible.

While the meal was served to the entire student body, only the second-graders got to eat family style. Martin even went as far as to connect with a mother of a student who suffers from peanut allergies to make sure he could enjoy the exact same Thanksgiving feast as the rest of the students.

After the success of the meal, Martin said the focus will be on creating other opportunities to share with students in the family-style setting.

“We may be getting pretty ambitious, but we would love to try to get something for Christmas,” Martin said. “Even if it is for just one grade, we’d like to continue to do something at one of our schools and grow from there. This takes a great deal of preparation and teamwork, but I can’t commend these ladies in the kitchen here at Millersburg enough for all of their hard work in helping to prepare this meal. They were very accommodating and open to all kinds of suggestions to ways we could make this meal special for the kids.”

The students were more than ready to dive into the meal. Their comments walking into the feast and the looks on their faces were priceless as they were in awe of the setting and the food.

On their best behavior, the second-graders made the most of the opportunity to share something special.

Troyer Porter, who has packed his lunch every day of school since kindergarten, had his first school lunch and was highly impressed.

“Out of 1,000, this is a 988,” Porter said. “This is definitely cool.”

As far as his thoughts on delving into a school lunch, Porter said, “It tastes really good, at least this time.”

“I am in total agreeance,” Nolan Brown said in response to what Porter had said.

Jacoby Rice said he enjoyed the apple and chicken. He too was quite pleased with the chance to sit down to a family-style meal at school.

“This is pretty special,” Rice said. “It is basically like we are recreating the very first Thanksgiving meal with the pilgrims.”

Kaylin Berry is one of Carmel’s students, and she said everyone sitting together and getting served was exciting.

“We talked about this day a lot, and we were all so excited about what it was going to be like,” Berry said. “It was worth it all, and I think we are all having a lot of fun.”

If the joy and dining experience emanating from both the students and the staff was any indication, Thanksgiving and Christmas lunches at West Holmes elementary schools may never be the same again.