{"id":155901,"date":"2026-02-14T23:21:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T23:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155901\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T23:21:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T23:21:05","slug":"ossichak-named-beacon-award-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155901\/","title":{"rendered":"Ossichak named Beacon Award winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cape Coral Municipal Charter School Foundation<\/a> presented its 2026\u00a0Beacon\u00a0Award\u00a0to the food service manager of Oasis Charter Schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing named the\u00a0Beacon\u00a0Award\u00a0Winner means that the hard work, dedication, and effort I have put in over the last three years has been recognized,\u201d\u00a0Oasis Charter Schools Food Service Manager Mary Ossichak said. \u201cIt\u2019s an honor to know my commitment has made a meaningful impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cape Coral Municipal Charter School Foundation Vice President Jen-Hope Belis said the\u00a0Beacon\u00a0Award\u00a0began as a superintendent\u00a0award\u00a0to recognize noneducational staff throughout municipal charter school system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a0Beacon\u00a0Award\u00a0highlighted one support staff amongst all four schools,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Belis said Ossichak has done a lot to really make lunches healthier for students, as well as more cost effective, allowing prices to decrease.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has been able to provide cost savings, nutritional benefits to the students and has elevated the program,\u201d she said. \u201cShe is always willing to go above and beyond. She is well-deserving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ossichak began working at Oasis Middle School in 2012 as a substitute in the kitchen before quickly moving up and becoming the kitchen lead for 10 years. Three years ago, she took over as the manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs food service manager I am continuously looking for new ways to improve our meals, making them more appealing and healthier,\u201d she said. \u201cI also listen to the kids\u2019 feedback. My goal is to be sure every child is fed, and it is a fresh, nutritious, healthy, enjoyable meal.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been many accomplishments this year for Ossichak.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of my accomplishments this year include receiving an FDA grant to help make our meals even healthier for our students. We have also transitioned to serving 95% fresh fruit instead of canned, increased the amount of organic foods we offer and incorporated more fresh meat into our menus. In addition, we\u2019ve significantly reduced the use of highly processed food to provide higher quality, more nutritious meals for our kids,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ossichak said she loves seeing all the kids eating, as well as the increase in the number of lunches and breakfasts served this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have an amazing team. All my staff work so hard to be sure every kid is fed. I have the best boss and greatest admin team who allow me to do what I do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cape Coral Municipal Charter School Foundation presented its 2026\u00a0Beacon\u00a0Award\u00a0to the food service manager of Oasis Charter Schools.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-155901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}