(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with the Atlantic Community School District (ACSD), say more than 120 District staff were hosted to lunch August 18th at the United Methodist Church in Atlantic. A group of approximately 15 ladies, made up of members from both the United Methodist Church and the 1st Presbyterian Church of Atlantic spent the morning preparing a feast of food for all ACSD staff to enjoy. Communications Specialist Mallory Robinson says “This group of ladies arrived early the morning of Aug. 18th, to prepare homemade sloppy joes, bringing with them an assortment of salads and deserts, prepared and ready to go for the day’s luncheon.

“The buffet was arranged in such a manner, [and] with such great attention to detail,” she says, “that one could not help but wish for multiple plates to accommodate the many delicious offerings available for lunch that day!”

Photos courtesy Mallory Robinson

Atlantic Community School District staff filtered in throughout the lunch hour in shifts – providing a seamless flow the entire lunch hour. While sitting with new and familiar faces, ACSD current staff spent time talking with these ladies, hearing stories and remembering school years of the past.  “According to Robinson, “The luncheon preparation and meal offering is a sacrifice of work and love and one that all Atlantic Community School District employees have eagerly anticipated every year, for the last 8 years!”

Many of the ladies, she says, helped raise the current generation of teachers they prepared the meal for, in one one or another,  With a meal made from love, a prayer over the school year, and hugs and high-fives, ACSD Staff are sent on their way that final Friday before the new school year begins, knowing the generation before them is cheering them on.

Robinson says “It’s a tremendous opportunity for our ACSD Staff to be supported and fed a delicious meal by the ladies of the United Methodist and 1st Presbyterian Churches of Atlantic.  What a great example of our district’s yearly theme: Trojan CommUNITY!”