slideshow

Faye Miracle wants her “kids” at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College’s (SKCTC) Middlesboro campus to eat well.

Miracle, who began operating the Campus Café a year ago and is known for her engaging personality and ability to create mouth-watering meals, has come up with a way for students to plan ahead, ensuring they will have the opportunity to enjoy a hot meal during the school year.

Beginning with the fall semester, students will have the chance to take part in a pre-pay plan, therefore allowing them to plan ahead and guard them from the normal, end of the month cash shortage that often leads to them not eating well, thus becoming damaging to the learning process.

“Once we fully put together the design the process will allow for the students to enjoy a hot meal, and with the help of the college the meal plan is soon to begin. The business office agreed to take over the collection as part of the normal application process and will forward the funds to the grill. This will let students use grant and aid monies that are given out at the beginning of the semester, allowing for them much better nutrition for the entire semester,” Miracle said.

Miracle, a California native who grew up in Michigan and southeastern Kentucky, began working in the food industry at 16. “I am always feeding somebody, always loved to cook, learned that from my grandmother; so when I took over the grill a year ago I soon discovered that many of the kids would run out of money at the end of the month and especially at the end of the semester, they would begin skipping meals. With the pre-pay plan, they will now be able to get a hot meal throughout the semester.”

Miracle’s cooking skills are well respected and each day of the school week she prepares a plate lunch with a choice of meat and with several vegetables as well as salads. While many students continue to opt for burgers and fries, she has discovered that others at the college, students as well as staff and faculty, enjoy her daily specials.

The pre-pay plan will include a full meal, either breakfast or lunch, up to a total of $6. Students will get 10 meals for $60, 20 meals for $120 or 40 meals for $240.

“I’m trying to encourage them to eat better. A meal is not a brownie and a soft drink,” said Miracle with a chuckle.

In the future, the college will likely utilize a scanning device of the students’ ID to account for the meals.