SOUTH PORTLAND – Students and staff will work this weekend to create a memorial to a longtime worker at the Kaler school.
SOUTH PORTLAND – Each of the five elementary schools in South Portland is named for a different pillar of the city’s educational community, a list that includes teachers, school board members, and superintendents.
But this weekend one of those schools will redefine what it means to be a mentor when it dedicates a new outdoor eating area to a woman known to generations of schoolchildren as simply “the lunch lady.”
On Saturday morning, volunteers will work to transform a portion of the back lawn at the Kaler Community School of Exploration and Inquiry, just off the cafeteria, into the Sue Everett Memorial Outdoor Eating Area, in memory of a woman who filled bellies and warmed hearts, serving up thousands of meals, always with a smile, for more than a quarter century until her death last July.
The public is welcome at that work session, said the PTA co-president, Angela Emery, or on May 16, when schoolchildren will plant trees around the site as part of Kaler’s annual “Greening Day.” (For more on how to help, click here.)
“We just wanted to do something to honor her memory, because our food service workers are such an important part of our children’s lives, and Sue exemplified that in every way,” said Emery.
A number of area businesses have contributed cash or in-kind donations of time and materials to make the project possible, said Emery. In addition, the PTA is trying to raise about $1,800 to finish construction.
“It’s a great tribute to her and what she meant to Kaler,” said Darlene Jeffers, who worked alongside Everett for seven years. “I’m just so happy she’s being memorialized in such a wonderful way.”
The term “lunch lady” was still something of a pejorative in 1987 when Sue Everett was hired as a lunch aide at James Otis Kaler Elementary School. Back then, cafeteria workers were thought of as doughty old women in hairnets who silently slopped out mystery meat to unsuspecting students. But if that stereotype was ever true, it certainly was not in Everett’s case.
“She was just a sweet, sweet woman with a very kind heart and an unbelievable work ethic,” said Jeffers.
Through the years, an increasing awareness has been paid to the importance of the food service crew in public schools. Because of people like Everett, the term “lunch lady” has actually transcended into a sort of honorific, said Emery. In fact, the memorial stone that will mark the new patio area with its six picnic tables will recognize Everett as “The Lunch Lady.” It has become, said Emery, a term of respect.
“They are,” noted Kaler Principal Diane Lang, “a positive, daily influence. And Sue was certainly that.”
“When you think about it,” said Jeffers, “a teacher will only have a student one year, but the cafeteria workers see them every single day, year after year, for the entire time they’re here. Sue knew the name of every single student, which is pretty huge when you think about it.”
Everett never lost focus on the needs of the children under her care, said Jeffers, recalling in particular one day when the older woman, by now in charge of the facility, noticed a boy who still appeared to be hungry after finishing his meal. That should be more surprising that it is, but 62 percent of Kaler students, the highest in the district, receive subsidized meals, based on low family incomes.
“She maybe could have gotten in trouble for it, but she had me take another bowl of food out to him,” said Jeffers. “She always said, ‘No child is ever going to leave my lunchroom hungry.”
And that’s how it was, right up until Everett’s sudden, surprising death. Just months before succumbing to cancer, she helped launch a new breakfast mentoring program at Kaler, preparing meals to be served to students in their classrooms, so that no child had to start the school day battling hunger pains, or absent a kind word from a caring adult.
‘Always willing’
But it wasn’t always easy for Everett. According to Jeffers, Everett was the only child of parents who owned a motel. As such, she was pressed into domestic service from an early age. As an adult, while raising two sons, Justin and Garrett, Everett worked two jobs, seven days a week, to pay her bills. (A previous version of this story mistakenly reported that Everett was childless.)
But if she ever felt worn down, it never showed. Everett went about her duties without complaint co-workers say. By 1997 she had risen from aide to take charge of the kitchen – officially the baker, says Lang – but, really, according to teacher Boyd Marley, “the first and only cook at Kaler.”
“Sue shared a very tiny space with the gym, art and music classes, which meant that she had to move her salad bar, milk cooler, and steam table out into the hall after breakfast and move it back before lunch and out again after lunch, which she did without complaint,” he said.
“She was always willing to let groups use the kitchen, for literacy night and other events, even when she knew it would end up a mess for her to clean up, and yet she never said no,” said Jeffers.
“Sue believed in lifelong learning and attended as many educational sessions as were available to her, both in the district and around the state,” said Boyd, in a release announcing Saturday’s construction event. “One of her high points was the summer she attended the National Conference of the School Nutrition Association in Baltimore and shared experiences with over 5,000 other ‘lunch ladies’ from around the United States.
“Sue also started a mentoring program for Kaler students who might be interested in a career in food service and allowed them to assist her in the kitchen,” said Boyd. “She was always willing to share her vast knowledge with others.
“The students of Kaler School and the South Portland School District were her highest priority and she thoroughly enjoyed watching and helping them learn and grow,” he said.
On Monday, a few students gathered for an unofficial groundbreaking of the new eating area. One fourth-grader, Blaine Rice, declared the site “an awesome place to put it.” Although Rice understood why the area was to be built, he never knew Everett himself, he said.
Still, Jeffers said, Everett remembered each student who passed through Kaler, even long after they had gone on to the high school or higher education.
“I’m sure many of those students remember her, too,” said Jeffers. “I would love to see some of them come back to help build the new lunch area, or for the dedication, to show how much she was appreciated.”
Students, parents, staff and teachers will convene at South Portland’s Kaler Community School of Exploration and Inquiry on Saturday to begin construction of an outdoor eating area that will be dedicated to the memory of the school’s longtime “lunch lady,” Sue Everett, who died in July 2012. Here, Kaler Special Education Teacher Boyd Marley distributes tools to Adam Tinkham, Blaine Rice and Carson Blake to break ground at the site of the new eating area Monday. Photo by Rich Obrey
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