Food services manager Diana Losier and her team of six serve lunch to 530 students at Gocio Elementary School every day in addition to offering breakfast to 300 and preparing supper for students who stay after the school day. Some school lunch programs made headlines recently for shaming students who can’t pay, but Losier says that’s not true at Gocio, where 81 percent of students receive a free lunch and another 7 percent pay a discounted rate. “Nobody knows who’s on free or reduced lunch except for me,” she emphasizes. Losier loves her work, especially the contact with the kids. “I don’t think people realize how awesome this job is,” she says.

5:17 a.m. “I’m there at 6 a.m. every morning, so I’m up by 5:10. I’m making coffee. That’s my routine. When I get to work, there’s nobody else in the school.” 

7:32 a.m. “We try to give kids what they like. We were doing steamed squash, but now we’re sautéing or baking it and they like it better. If they could eat pizza every day, they would.” 

8:43 a.m. “I’m going over rules about food safety, hand-washing and handling chemicals. Everybody has to have so many hours of training."

11:06 a.m. “I don’t run the register, so I don’t get to know the kids’ names, but when I see a child at Walmart they come up and say hello. It helps that I get to see them at their favorite time of day.”

12:24 p.m. “Staffers can eat in the cafeteria, too. For $3.50, it’s a really good deal. It’s nacho day, which is popular. Everything is homemade and delicious.” 

1:59 p.m. “At the end of the day, I count all the money, figure out how many meals we served. We get audited, so everything has to be on paper.” 

3:09 p.m. “My grandchildren go to Liberty Baptist Academy, which is near my house, so sometimes I get to pick them up. It’s fun for them.”

4:06 p.m. “On Thursdays, my granddaughter, Sallon, practices the piano. I don’t play, but I just help make sure she’s doing it the way she’s supposed to.”

5:52 p.m. “I don’t feel like cooking when I get home, and now that my kids are grown, I don’t need to fix suppers. I’m eating pizza at Rico’s with my husband and my daughter and her family.”