Morrison associate receives national service award
By Heidi Lutz
For Steven King, a retail associate with Morrison Food Services, it was just another day on his job, fulfilling the requests of customers at Café on the Court. But for one woman and her daughter, it meant enough to drop a letter to King’s supervisors, who in turn nominated him for a national service award for Morrison employees.
It began when a woman and her daughter—a young, wheelchair-bound girl with Down’s syndrome—came into the cafeteria at breakfast. They made a habit of stopping by the cafeteria for food after each of the girl’s treatments. On that particular day, the grill was shut down for the transition from breakfast to lunch, but the young girl wanted a hamburger, her favorite food. King could have easily said no, the grill was closed temporarily. Instead, he pulled out a hamburger and made it for the young girl.
For her, not only was it the best hamburger she’d ever eaten, as she told her schoolmates, it was also the last burger she would eat. The young girl died a few days later. Her mother hand-delivered a card that read:
“The day you had your fellow employee make the burger for our Diane, even though the grills were shut down, turned out to be a very special event in Diane’s life and in mine. Diane loved hamburgers and, it just so happened; this was to be her very last one. The great enjoyment she expressed as she savored every bite really made my day. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
For his efforts, King was one of four stellar associates of Morrison Healthcare Food Services nationwide to be honored as a grand prize winner in the Be-A-Star People First Associate Recognition Contest. King and his wife were treated as celebrities at the Morrison National Meeting in Atlanta. He also received a weekend trip to a nice hotel in Houston, and a pair of rings to replace their lost wedding rings.
While the celebrity treatment was nice, King insists it was just another day on the job.
“It feels great, just amazing,” he said. “I was just doing my job. I’m always up there making people smile.”
King makes a habit of keeping a smile on his face and trying to bring a smile to the face of all those he serves during the day.
“Seeing a smiling face, that will make my day,” King said.