Being named a School Nutrition Hero is not a title Sandy Hearn ever thought she’d have. Nominated with 38 other women across the country, local child nutrition technician Hearn was named one of five School Nutrition Heroes for 2016.

“To my knowledge, she’s the first manager in the state of Mississippi to ever win the award,” Laura Bounds, child nutrition director for the Vicksburg Warren School District said.

The award is presented by the School Nutrition Foundation to members of the School Nutrition Association who make a difference in the lives of students, apply their skills in the community to help feed others, influence the success of a cause, make a difference in their coworkers lives and use their nutrition knowledge to improve the school.

Bounds called her an amazing woman, a hard worker and a good mentor with a wonderful sense of humor, good nature and good heart.

“Sandy is the epitome of what a child nutrition manager is,” Bounds said. “I truly believe we have heroes walking among us in Vicksburg and Sandy is one of those heroes.”

Hearn has been working in child nutrition for 24 years and has been a manager for 20 of those years. It started when she sought a teacher’s aid position at Redwood Elementary. At the time she took the only position available, which was in the cafeteria, and was promised an aid position once one opened up. Three weeks later, she was offered an aid position, but she told them she would stay where she was.

After working at Culkin and the alternative school, she has spent the bulk of her career, 14 years, at Vicksburg High School.

“My job is to make sure that these ladies and gentlemen get the lunch out to the kids in a timely manner,” Hearn said.

Being the manager of a cafeteria consists of duties like paperwork, deposits, grocery orders and inventory. Her staff of 11 at VHS is a big part of what she does.

“I do have a wonderful staff,” Hearn said. “It takes a good staff to run a kitchen the way it needs to be run.”

Bounds would like to educate the community on the work the staff does at the schools each day.

“I don’t feel like the community knows what these ladies do on a daily basis,” Bounds said. “They touch lives every day.”

One of the biggest misconceptions about the job is what all goes into preparing seven entrees a day for 800 kids over four lunch periods. Some of the items on the menu are made from scratch and they all have requirements and guidelines having to do with calories, fat and sodium. In addition to lunch, they also serve breakfast.

“You don’t just run in here and open up a can and heat it up,” Hearn said.

One thing she can say is she actually enjoys going to work. When she gets to work she knows her staff is going to get the job done. She works to ensure the students get the balanced meal they need, but just don’t call her a lunch lady. These days they use the title café tech or child nutrition technicians

“They’re not lunch ladies anymore,” Bounds said. “We’ve all evolved with all this technology. These ladies don’t deserve to be called lunch ladies anymore.”

Receiving this national recognition is based just as much on the work she does outside of the cafeteria. Hearn may love her job, students and staff, but she really lights up talking about her work with children who have special needs.

A great deal of her time is spent on the board of directors for Jacob’s Ladder, as a volunteer at Camp Silver Cloud and a softball coach with several different organizations like the Special Olympics, the Mississippi Mudbugs and the Challenger League.

“Our ladies club through MSNA (Mississippi School Nutrition Association) makes sure these children have a balanced meal when they are at camp and we do fundraisers for that,” Hearn said.

Junior Nathaniel Guice was pleased to hear of Hearn’s national achievement. He said she always encouraged the softball team to do their best and always had good advice for them.

“Her coaching is amazing,” Guice said. “She always prepared us for every single game that we played, especially in the state championship in softball this year.”

Hearn’s newest award can go on the shelf with all of her softball trophies and garnishing awards won at MSNA state conferences. She will receive her award at the 44th Annual Legislative Action Conference in February.