MADISON – Jennifer Shott has proven that you CAN go back and home — and even get an award when you do.

Shott is the 2019 recipient of the “Staff Member of the Year” award at Heritage Elementary School. She works as Child Nutrition Program or CNP Manager at Heritage.

“I am so honored to receive Heritage’s Staff Member of the Year,” Shott said. “This (honor) is especially sweet for me because the very first cafeteria I started out at was Heritage elementary in 2011.”

Shott then worked at Mill Creek and West Madison elementary schools. While at West Madison, her colleagues also nominated and voted for her as Staff Member of the Year on that campus.

“Now, I get to come back to my home school at Heritage as the CNP Manager and receive Staff Member of the Year,” Shott said.

“Making sure all of our students are fed a nutritious and tasty meal is my main job,” she said. She encourages good behavior by telling students “that this is my house, and manners are very important. ‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ are said and appreciated.”

“The most rewarding party of my job is when the students smile and can’t wait to eat breakfast, lunch or a snack,” Shott said. “All of the students mean so much to me.”

Madison has been her home for the last 16 years. This community is “where my two beautiful daughters, Laura and Maya, grew up,” Jennifer said.

Her daughter Laura, a graduate of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, works as a health educator at Thrive Alabama. Maya is completing requirements for her psychology degree at Montevallo University.

Away from work, Jennifer enjoys visits with her family and “amazing friends. You can often find me making beautiful cakes and cupcakes for various friends and community organizations.”