Mary Rose Vanas
Position: Food Service Director
School: Shelby Public Schools
School District: Shelby Public Schools
City, State: Shelby, MI
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Music that Describes Mary Rose
Mary Rose Vanas was nominated by a colleague, Diane Golzynski.
"Mary Rose is the most amazing food service director I have ever met," Golzynski said. "I have never met someone so incredibly passionate about making sure her community is fed. All you have to do is check out the School Nutrition Association's Facebook 'Brag Board.' Mary Rose not only feeds the kids of her district, but she has looked across her community and works to feed the kids at a local Christian school."
Ms. Vanas makes sure students are fed home-cooked meals that are made with an abundance of love. In addition, she not only feeds kids, but she also seeks community grants and other funding so she can feed any hungry adult that steps across her threshold. For the entire pandemic, she has been feeding the entire community home-cooked meals, passing out Farmers to Families food boxes, and completely maximizing every meal option available to her.
She is doing marvelous work by feeding the kids in school in hard time of pandemic. She is hard working and committed to her work. In this way she is making home in hearts of needy and depressed people. She is doing wonderful job. She deserve the sincere appreciation.
#LCOY
In a time when life is so chaotic, it is wonderful to have those people who go above and beyond the call of duty to help their community. While our family has not been hit hard by the shutdown (we had been at home before the pandemic due to my husband's disability and my own health issues and we were also homeschooling our children) we do live on a very limited and tight budget and these food boxes help to supplement our grocery bill (and with three growing kids, that is HUGE!)
We were fortunate to have helped volunteer a few times and got to see it in action. Sometimes people put on a show and pretend to be caring all the while grumbling and complaining about what they have to do. THIS IS NOT THE CASE WITH MARY ROSE!!! The moment you walk into the environment is WONDERFUL and supportive and you are happier when you leave because it is an infectious environment. Not only is it a joy to be there, but there was also sadness because I was no longer able to help out.
Has Mary Rose changed my life for the positive? Most definitely! When you truly care about people, it touches all you do. It is wonderful to see people who have that gift.
The boxes for Thanksgiving dinner? Amazingly thoughtful!
Mary Rose's hard work is very well appreciated by our family.
Thanks so much for my Thanksgiving Basket. It really means a lot to me. You are SO AWESOME SELFLESS CARING AND GOOD HEARTED. You help so many in this community and you are very much loved. Thank You.
The words that describe Mary Rose are AMAZING, CARING, & HARD WORKING! I am proud to be an educator in the same school system as Mary Rose. Mary gives so much of her heart to our community. She has no idea the impact that she has made in our area! Thank you Mary, you are amazing!
One of hardest and most generous people you could ever meet
Congratulations on the nomination , Mary Rose.
Mary Rose is a fantastic, caring person and a great cook/baker.
Thank you Mary Rose Vanas for all you do to make sure the kids and families of your community is fed! You are a very valuable asset to Shelby!
#LCOY Congrats to you, Mary Rose, on this nomination! You are such a pioneer for serving food to our community - and this community really needs all the love and support we can offer! We greatly appreciate your assistance to The Ladder Community Center and our food programs as well.
#LCOY I have recently met Mary. Her priority in life is helping children and the needy. She deserves any award that she possibly could receive. She is giving of herself 100% of her time!
You go Mary!!
Mary Rose is simply an angel on earth. She never tires of taking care of each and every child, school staff, and community member's every need. Whether it's a family struggling to make ends meet or a kid who needs shoes or glasses, Mary Rose finds a way to fix the problem so students can focus on learning. Because of her, our students are happy, healthy and feel loved and safe at SPS!
Mary Rose is an incredible human being. She is a blessing to our community and our school. She has always gone above and beyond to provide the best possible nutrition to everyone in our rural area. During the recent pandemic Mary Rose led her staff in feeding anyone in need. She works tirelessly to find grants and opportunities to allow our great community to grow and thrive. As a parent, the work she does takes great stress off of my plate as I know my children are provided nutritionally balanced meals every single day whether school is in session or not. The lives changed in our community by just this one person are incredible.
Mary Rose has an unbelievable passion to help others. She displays an attitude that represents what our community is all about. She has tremendous grit and fantastic compassion for others. Her attitude is shared by her staff that works so hard everyday and really stepped up this summer. Mary Rose and her Staff Rocks! Thank you so much for all your efforts and the example you set for all of us. "We are all affected because we are all connected."
There isn’t anyone more deserving than Mary Rose Vanas . Thank you for everything to do for the kids, schools and community. #LCOY
MaryRose is a fabulous person. During our school lunch time, MaryRose talks with many students, just to see how their day is going. She has so much compassion for our students, staff, community and church. During the pandemic she and her staff have worked hard to feed our students. MaryRose has continued to have the farm to family food program for our community. I am honored to work with MaryRose and very proud she works in our community.
Mary Rose is one of the most caring director’s in the State of Michigan.
She is such an inspiration in everything she does.
I am a School Food Service Director and Mary is the Food Service Director North of my School. I am continually amazed at her hard work and dedication to the kids in her community and all families in her community. She loves her kids and is always going above and beyond to take care of them. She prepares scratch cooked meals for her students and did a ton of work to make sure all kids in district eat for free. She fiercely takes care of her families. One time the staff announce that there was an opportunity to offer extra meals to our students, while I thought about the implications and how to execute within a few hours Mary announced her plan to serve those extra meals. Another example is the Farm to Family boxes. The program is a good deal of work and most schools didn't engage because it requires effort and planning and no financial benefit to the school food service program. I did it every other week to benefit my families for about 8 weeks. Mary has done it every week since March. She also added dairy boxes, got 10-15 other community groups involved to take food. Mary bakes pies for a school fundraiser and does cooking classes with the students.
Mary Rose, I could never think of anyone more deserving. You keep our whole community fed. Thank you so much!
Mary Rose is a amazing lady who really cares about our children
