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Angie Smith, director of dining services for Isle of Wight County Schools, was recently recognized as a K-12 food service hero by Food Management magazine.

Smith’s duties include developing menus, purchasing, managing client labor and overseeing students breakfast and lunch programs at the district’s nine schools.

In an announcement, however, the school division lauded her for going above and beyond during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic by showing up outside regular working hours to cook so that students can have a hot meal for lunch, like a chicken pot pie, a barbecue pork sandwich or chicken fajitas.

She also scheduled time to ride the bus to engage with the kids and helped arrange meal deliveries to students who are homebound and cannot make it to delivery sites. Smith’s work in Isle of Wight was recognized by the state. Officials asked her to put together information on her program that would be included in a Virginia Department of Education presentation.

Smith is a 25-year veteran of feeding large groups in hospitals and business. She returned to Isle of Wight last year to work in her childhood school district. In addition to taking care of the children, she sought out donations from Starbucks for her staff who are working as demonstration of appreciation for their hard work. She was nominated for the honor by Gene Sanchez, regional vice president at Chartwells, which operates the school division’s foodservice.

Food Management focuses on issues that affect foodservice professionals who work in non-commercial dining settings such as health care, universities and K-12 education.