It's the one subject you looked forward to in school: lunch. One primary school lunch lady takes her job to another level. Ms. Christine Sampson is serving up food in and out of the cafeteria.
"There you go, you enjoy," says Christine Sampson as she serves breakfast.
Second grade teacher, Donna Gunter describes Sampson, "She always has a smile on her face, she's very uplifting."
The kids call her Ms. Christine, but Christine Sampson isn't your average lunch lady. "There are sometimes where she knows a child has a need and she goes above and beyond," says Gunter.
Sampson explains, "I have been out and bought groceries for kids with my money because they say they're hungry the next day."
And it doesn't stop when the school year ends.
"I work just about all year round, I don't get two months of vacation," says Sampson.
That's because she helps run a summer feeding program in Houston County. During the school year you can find her at Perdue Primary School, but she spends her summers at Northside High, cooking and delivering food to children in the neighborhood.
"They know our horns when we blow it to come and get their lunch and they'll be so excited, and it just makes my heart cry and say thank you lord because some of these kids they get their lunches and they sit right there on the ground and eat it, " says Sampson.
She says sometimes the children tell her they're still hungry.
"I'm thinking that they don't get a dinner. All they get is what the board of education gives them. So sometimes I go out of my way and go to the store and I buy the kids something to eat and take it back to the parents."
She says she loves the kids and when she's serving them she feels like they're one of her own.
"She never overlooks them, she never sees past them, she sees right at that sweet child and that's very special," says Kindergarten teacher, Kim Mashburn.
"It just hurts my heart when they say they're hungry and I know that when they come from home that they haven't had anything to eat," explains Sampson.
She says she works in the school's kitchen to help them. "Because when they come to me and say they're hungry, I'm hungry too and want to give."
And there's one thing for sure, "They're my babies."
Sampson has been with the Houston County school system for thirteen years. The program she runs each summer is sponsored and funded by the district.
