School Office Staff Need Love Too! - Administrative Professionals Day Gift Idea

Initially it was because I had a backlog of lettuce built up from our weekly farm share, but I ended up putting in a little extra effort to make it special to show them how much they're appreciated!

Z goes to a private Kindergarten class in the mornings, and the public school for lunch and the rest of the afternoon. But our district has a full-day program. Which means we're showing up in the middle of their day. To accommodate us, the office has a special sign-in sheet for us, and we sit there and bother them wait for Z's class to pass by on their way to the lunch room where she joins them. I see every day how much these folks go through and the extra mile they go to for the kids. Plus they have to put up with the kids squeaking and squalling and me yelling at them to quit it and settle down.

So when I had an excess of lettuce and a deep dread of yet another salad, what better way to use it up than to feed the office staff and show my appreciation! 

I packed eight EasyLunchboxes for the staff, so an extra bonus - reusable lunch boxes for them to keep! Big enough for grown-up appetites, sturdy enough to last a while, and inexpensive enough I could afford to gift eight of them away! (Plus eligible for free shipping on Amazon! Woop!)

Organic salad (red lettuce, cabbage, radicchio, orange and purple carrots,) add-ons (organic raisins, sunflower
seeds, hemp hearts,) Rosemary Balsamic dressing, Angie's Candy Corn, truffle, organic grapes

I didn't want anything too fancy/labor intensive, so I just made some simple carrot flowers with a small flower veggie cutter to decorate the salads. I can't overwhelm them with awesome the first time 'round. There's the whole rest of the school year ahead of us. Keep expectations low! Hahaha! 

I didn't have enough new Mini Dippers to give each person two, so I used them for the dry add-ons, and put the dressing in disposable sauce cups. 

I was going to put several of the dairy-free dark chocolate truffles from Whole Foods in the small section, but I tried one. Ohhhh myyyyy! So they each got one, and I filled the rest of the compartment with some Angie's flavored popcorn - Candy Corn flavor, bought on clearance after Halloween. It has dairy, so I couldn't try it. But from the rave reviews I got afterwards, I have an inkling it was very tasty!

Eight pretty maids all in a row! Don't they just look gorgeous? I love the new Brights lids! This was such a fun and easy way to show my appreciation, and judging from all the thanks I got, they don't see enough of it!

Administrative Professionals Day is in April every year, the Wednesday of the last full week of the month. What have you got planned? (4/23 in 2014. Still plenty of time!)

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