Lead the conversation
When white nationalists and other protestors congregated in Charlottesville, Va., for the “Unite the Right” rally, Joanne Kinsey was grateful that her school and department had already started a conversation about equity. The director of school nutrition services for Chesapeake Public Schools says some of her team members were rattled to see the rally—which claimed a counter protestor’s life—take place just four hours from the Chesapeake, Va., district.
On the whole, Kinsey says her crew tends to focus more on their daily grind—a feat achieved in part through acknowledging injustices. At the department’s kickoff meeting, one of the supervisors gives a presentation on what equity is and what it looks like in the operation. The lecture is followed by an open discussion about how team members can respect one another. “It’s not that we don’t want people to have discussions,” she says. “We wanted to grab their attention and say, ‘Look, we know there are issues in the world and our community, but this is a great place to work and we have a lot to offer.’ Then, we ask them to focus on that.”