MtM Volunteer – Ronda Herman

Ronda Herman is a veteran elementary school teacher with more than 15 years of teaching experience, the last 13 years of which have been at Maple Elementary in Dorchester County. She began volunteering for Midshore Meals til Monday during the 2019-2020 school year when she assumed responsibility for organizing the MtM food bag distribution at her school. Ms. Herman works with the other teachers and staff to identify students who might benefit from the program and supervises the distribution of the food bags each week. When the pandemic closed schools in March of 2020, Ms. Herman began personally delivering the food bags to over 100 students’ homes each week. She kept up the home deliveries throughout last summer and the current school year while students learned virtually. The number of home food deliveries have diminished gradually in recent months as students began attending school in person and could pick up their MtM food bags at school. Ms. Herman finds the MtM program an important food supplement for the students at  Maple Elementary. Making home visits to drop off food bags resulted in many positive benefits, including the opportunity for Ms. Herman to make personal connections with students and families during the long months the school buildings were closed or on a hybrid schedule. Often parents took the opportunity to ask Ms. Herman general school questions feeling more comfortable with the friendly face-to-face contact during the food bag deliveries. Ms. Herman was selected as a DCPS 2021-22 Teacher of the Year finalist for her exemplary teaching efforts and dedication to the Maple Elementary students and families.  Thank you Ms. Herman for your amazing contributions to our community!