Former Laurens County School District 55 employee Nancy Knight was recently inducted into the School Nutrition Association (SNA) of South Carolina Hall of Fame at their 70th Annual State Conference and Exposition in Myrtle Beach.

Knight, affectionately called “Mama Knight” by many, worked in School Nutrition at District 55 for 50 years. Her daughter, Wanda Knight, is currently the Director of Student Nutrition Services at District 55.  

She began her career as a substitute cafeteria operator, serving in this capacity for seven years. She then was hired as a permanent employee in 1976 at Hickory Tavern School. She continued her career and became a cafeteria manager in 1986.

Her superintendent at the time asked her to transfer to Sanders School for one year, then she would return to Hickory Tavern and remain there for the next 32 years, until her retirement in 2020.

Knight has seen many changes in the child nutrition programs including more regulations, stronger food safety guidelines, and computers. She shares stories of the early days when they would fry everything. There was no breakfast served in the district until the early 1990’s. They did not have an ice machine in the earlier years and would have to chop big blocks of ice with an ice pick. They cooked everything from scratch.

Her starting pay was $1.25 an hour. She loved serving her students, reminiscing about serving children, their children, their grandchildren, and some great grandchildren. She enjoyed seeing the students come into the cafeteria daily.

Later in her career they called her “Grandma”. Knight has always had a passion and dedication for serving the best meals possible to the students. Making sure all students were treated kindly and given lots of love and attention.