With composure, organization, and cafeteria staff at the ready, Beth Diloreta, Stone Bridge’s School Nutrition Manager, managed to turn a potential crisis situation into an extraordinary success on the morning of March 11. When students and staff at Briar Woods High School abruptly evacuated after a building malfunction, Diloreta and the Bulldog nutrition team provided meals for approximately 1,700 additional students with only 15 minutes’ notice.
Diloreta was still expected to feed all Stone Bridge students on the day of the evacuation, effectively doubling the number of lunches needed. Her job of overlooking the making and serving of lunches became all the more challenging as she stared down a total of nearly 3,400 hungry mouths to feed.
“We arrive here at 5:30 a.m. in the morning, and we come in and we get everything prepped for breakfast, and then we do breakfast, and then we turn around and prep everything for lunch, and then we do lunch,” Diloreta said. “Then we got lots of cleaning up and organizing and ordering and deposits, and usually we’re out the door by two o’clock…My staff is fantastic, so they could handle the [influx of students].”
Diloreta handled an extra layer of chaos on the day of Briar Woods’ evacuation because she was also helping to run the Community and Schools Together initiative, dubbed the ‘CAST’ program, at the school administration building that morning. CAST works to provide real-world workplace experience to adult special education students by having them sell food made by cafeteria staff. Diloreta was dropping off food when she got the call from principal Dr. Timothy Flynn.
“We make the food for the CAST program to pick up on Monday and Wednesdays and take it to the Admin Building, and then they sell it over there,” Diloreta said. “They didn’t have a driver that day, so I had to be the one to take it over there. I had just pulled into the parking lot, and my phone was ringing, and I had to get in my car real quick and headed back.”
The biggest challenge for the cafeteria staff wasn’t actually preparing the magnitude of food, but rather managing the additional nutritional staff from Briar Woods in a confined setting.
“Making the food wasn’t that bad, because their staff had to come over too, but since they’re not used to working here, they had no idea what we were doing or what we were making,” Diloreta said. “And of course, of all days, it was nacho day, which is one of the busiest days of high school. So we had to throw in tenders, nuggets, and anything else really that we had in the freezer to make.”
For her selfless professionalism and leadership, Diloreta received the SHINE nomination—a program used by LCPS to honor staff members who go above the expectations in their roles. Diloreta continues to raise the bar for staff and students; the Bulldog community is grateful to have such a positive example in the cafeteria
“Mrs. Diloreta’s actions reflected the heart of what Loudoun County Public Schools stands for—care, service, and commitment to students,” the official SHINE write-up said. “In a moment when thousands of students needed support and stability, she ensured that their basic needs were met with professionalism and compassion. Mrs. Diloreta is an invaluable member of the Stone Bridge community.”
