Kentucky Students Celebrate Their Special Day on the Birthday Bus

When the Grant County School District in Kentucky purchased an aging bus several years ago for their summer meal program, they wanted to find creative ways to utilize it during the school year. Most of the seats of the bus had been replaced with bench tables and a sink, warmers and a cooler were added, opening up opportunities to serve students meals in the parked bus.

Using festive decorations and streamers, the food service team repurposed the Lunch Bus Express into the Birthday Bus for monthly visits to schools during the school year. As students enter the bus, they are given a birthday activity book and provided a reimbursable school lunch, including pizza, fruit, vegetables, milk and a whole grain cookie or special applesauce birthday treat.

“We had conversations about how we could use the bus during the school year when I first started working for the school district and came up with the idea to create the Birthday Bus,” said Maggy Livingood, School Nutrition Director for Grant County Schools. “The bus visits a different elementary school each Thursday and those celebrating a birthday that month get to go on to the bus for about 25 minutes, enjoy their lunch and celebrate with their fellow students.”

Livingood’s 76-year-old father Richard volunteers to help serve the special meal to students. He even sings to them before they exit the Birthday Bus, adding to their special celebrations.

“I’ve heard students comment that their time on the Birthday Bus gave them the best birthday and even the best day of their young lives,” said Livingood. “I love seeing the reaction of our kindergarteners as they approach the bus. We like to tell them that ours might be the only Birthday Bus in the United States and possibly the world, so that always adds to their excitement.”

The Birthday Bus visits all four elementary schools in the district and can accommodate up to 20-25 students. Summer birthdays are recognized closer to the end of the school year and students with winter birthdays during colder months are recognized when the Birthday Bus is in service since the heat was removed for summer meal service.

Livingood and the team recognize a couple grades at a time during the birthday lunch and work on the bus schedule to try to align with the lunch waves. Coordination of all the students can be tricky so they also provide birthday activity books to keep student occupied if they’re waiting to have their turn on the bus.

“I love seeing the kindergarteners that have not been on the birthday bus before, as they walk around the corner. Their jaws kind of drop because our bus is not yellow, it’s bright green – they have never seen anything of that sort,” added Livingood.