South Carolina school 'lunch heroes' work for the smiles BRUCE MILLS, The Sumter Item May 8, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail SUMTER, S.C. (AP) — Much has been made about K-12 classroom changes during the pandemic, but what about the changes and “new normal” for school food-service workers? Given Friday, May 7, was national School Lunch Hero Day across the U.S., The Sumter Item sat down with some of Sumter School District’s finest cuisine creators to get a feel for the work and capture all the change that has occurred in the last 15 months with food preparation in the COVID-19 era. According to Stacey Francis, the district’s food service director, and others, the biggest change in breakfast and lunch meal prep as a result of the pandemic has been prepackaging all items versus placing food on trays as we all remember in the world before COVID-19. Meals are still cooked from scratch though, she said.