Kathy is the school nurse at the Francis A Desmares Elementary School in Flemington, NJ (Flemington Raritan School District). Kathy is a true champion for wellness for the students,families and staff in the community that her school serves. It all started in 2005 when their district did the CDC School Health Index and they developed the Flemington-Raritan Wellness Policy with a particular focus on school nutrition. Kathy has a passion for gardening and through careful research and obtaining a state wellness grant in 2009, she was able to oversee the building of a school garden which has been operating over the past few years. She has a set of volunteer wellness champions, mostly parent volunteers, who help maintain the garden. Teachers and Students also plant and work in the garden. Students and staff have received specialized nutrition lessons including cooking lessons with a chef. In addition,the students have incorporated the produce from the garden into their school lunches and have created healthy recipes learning to enjoy a variety of vegetables they may never have eaten before. Kathy and her school garden were just featured in the May issue of Parents Magazine. http://www.parents.com/recipes/nutrition/school-gardens/
Kathy works tirelessly to foster good nutrition within the district and is currently paving the way to improve the school lunch menu. Her school just received the USDA Bronze Award for Nutrition. She has done several professional workshops and presentations about school gardens and has a collaborative relationship with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension.
She cares for a large number of Hispanic and low income students and has made such a different in the quality of their nutrition and others in the school community.
Kathy was also honored last year at the National Association of School Nurses Annual Conference in San Francisco with a Johnson and Johnson Health Leadership Award.