Dragons, unicorns and crown-wearing cafeteria workers welcomed Ridge View Elementary School students into the castle-themed cafeteria during National School Breakfast Week: The Quest for School Breakfast.

 “The kids need to have fun,” Kitchen Manager Susan Bogenschutz said. “This is a time to feed them, obviously, but they need to let loose and have fun, too. And it’s fun for us to see them have fun.”

Throughout the week of March 2-6, Ridge View served triple the amount of breakfast meals they typically do. Some parents even came to eat breakfast with their children. They came because, besides the multiple food options, there were also craft activities — decorating crowns, coloring bookmarks — and themed games that got kids excited about eating breakfast at school.

The nutrition workers also hosted an art contest. Students were thrilled to see the colorful pictures of dragons, mushrooms and unicorns they had colored hung all over the kitchen walls.

National School Breakfast Week in March and National School Lunch Week in October are not the only times Bogenschutz and her team have fun in the cafeteria. Tona Nielsen, a nutrition services substitute, said there’s always something fun going on at Ridge View Elementary.

“As a substitute I go to a lot of different schools — no other school does anything close to what Susan does,” Nielsen said. “She just goes so above and beyond, always, whether it's Christmas or St. Patrick's Day or Valentine's, or just any day, to show extra love to students or to her employees. She's just really amazing.”

Because Bogenschutz loves crafting and decorating and making people feel special, she often makes, at her own expense, themed decorations, costumes, crafts, prizes and creative treats for students and coworkers.

 “I love this stuff, I love art — t hat’s me,” she said. “I just like to see them have fun. I feed them, but I don't always see this, how excited they are.”

Ridge View Elementary’s nutrition services crew is also well-known for dancing for the students. They performed a lively St. Patrick’s Day Dance, decked out in green clothes, last month. Every year they do a Halloween dance, a turkey dance and some type of Christmas dance to entertain the students. Two years ago, for the 4oth anniversary of the movie “Footloose,” the ladies all wore fluorescent socks and cut loose with a “Footloose” dance number complete with a cardboard stand-up of Kevin Bacon, the star of the 1984 movie.

“We went out every lunch period and danced for whoever was in there — we did it multiple times,” lunch cashier Kendra Savage said. Savage is the choreographer for all the dances, which the workers practice during their breaks.

 “Even though it's stressful and we're serving a lot of kids, we still try to incorporate some fun,” one nutrition worker said of their playful antics.

Bogenschutz loves that she has a job where she can express herself, have lots of themed fun days, and make crafty gifts for students and coworkers. She appreciates that her team follows her lead as she executes creative themes and fun activities. As manager, Bogenschutz has grown the team from just two workers to six and is currently looking to hire one more person. Candidates who love to have fun, and are willing to dance around the cafeteria in a costume, are encouraged to apply.