ASHLAND — Chuck Benway and his student teacher, Abigail Sanders, wheel a cart out when the lunch bell rings at Ashland High School.
The pair stands in the lobby, their cart equipped with balloon animals, a pump and a marker. Students come up to them, smiles on their faces.
“Can you make me a giraffe?” one asks Benway.
The physics and chemistry teacher obliges, teaching the high schooler how to twist the balloon into a new shape.
“That one-on-one is a great way to connect with kids,” Benway said. “They see that one kid trusts me, which means they can trust me, too.”
Once students master turtles, they move on to dogs, then to flowers. Benway gives out “degrees” as they progress in their skills.
It isn’t only balloon animals Benway shares at lunchtime.
He also keeps a stock of candy. On days when he distributes that to students, the lobby and cafeteria turn into a rock-paper-scissors tournament, with Benway wandering between tables.
Birthdays get celebrated as well. Benway said he usually makes brownies and brings ice cream — he went through 80 boxes of brownie mix and 20 gallons of ice cream last year — but sometimes he’ll do something special to honor a student’s preferences.
On Feb. 1, he had a birthday party for a girl who preferred fruit to sweets. Benway brought her friends treats, but also pulled bowls of grapes, blueberries and pineapple slices out of a bag so she could make her own fruit salad.
For Valentine’s Day, Benway already has fake flowers tied together in bouquets. They have notes on them encouraging students to pass the bouquets around throughout the day.
Each student that receives the flowers is supposed to sign the note so Benway can measure the impact. Last year, that activity resulted in over 500 interactions between students and staff, Benway said.
The activities — aimed at building connections and creating a common experience between students — happen as part of what Benway calls “Lunch Bunch.”
Lunch Bunch
Lunch Bunch started around 17 years ago, according to Benway.
The idea came about in a conversation between Benway and Ben Spieldenner, now the chief innovation officer at Ashland City Schools.
Spieldenner, who used to teach language arts at Ashland High, got lunch duty alongside Benway. Spieldenner recalled the pair talking about the differences between connecting with students in the classroom versus at lunch.
He explained that in the classroom, you get to know students and build relationships and rapport with them.
The cafeteria can be a different story. Spieldenner said students tend to have lunchtime habits: They sit with the same friends every day, and for some, that period can be really challenging.
He and Benway didn’t want that to continue being the case, so they decided to act. Spieldenner said he suggested going around the tables and making balloon animals.
It took off from there. They tried a slew of different activities to engage students, from the birthday parties and balloon animals Benway does today, to Bingo tournaments.
Spieldenner’s involvement with Lunch Bunch stopped around 2018, when he took a position as a tech coach in the district. Still, he said his memories of Lunch Bunch are some of his favorites from his time as a teacher.
How does it keep operating?
Benway has kept it running since Spieldenner left.
“Chuck (Benway) is the real deal,” Spieldenner said. “And his heart is absolutely, 100% in making the educational experience as positive as it can be for kids.
“So him continuing it on honestly just makes me smile.”
Lunch Bunch doesn’t have a budget with the district. Over the years, Benway shared at a recent board meeting, Lunch Bunch has requested some funding from grants and has received money from private donors.
Most recently, Benway was honored at the board’s January meeting for a $4,000 grant he received from Trinity Lutheran Church.
Those donations and grants have bought items like the cart Benway wheels around.
At the board meeting in January, Benway also shared that he and Spieldenner have presented about Lunch Bunch at character conferences across the country.
He said they’ve gone to conferences in St. Louis, Missouri; Columbus; Jacksonville, Florida; and Washington, D.C.
Spieldenner said he believes Lunch Bunch could work at any school. It’s just a matter of finding the right mix of people, he said.
‘Something to look forward to’
After 17 years, Benway said part of Lunch Bunch’s continued success at Ashland High School is the anticipation. Students know Benway, and they know he’ll be around to bring a smile to their faces at lunchtime.
Even if I’m having the most awful day, (Benway) will come over here and just be an actual ball of energy and always cheer me up somehow.
Andrea hinkle, Ashland High School Senior
Andrea Hinkle and Emily Miller, both seniors at Ashland High, said Lunch Bunch encourages interacting with their peers. Sometimes, they said, that can be hard to do — it’s tempting to use phones or try to act cool.
But with Lunch Bunch, those pressures go out the window.
They said it’s easy to interact with others and have the courage to do something silly at lunch when they know they’re not alone.
“It’s something you look forward to at lunch instead of being on your phone and staring at social media all day,” Miller said. “It’s just something I really enjoy.”
Hinkle agreed.
“Even if I’m having the most awful day, (Benway) will come over here and just be an actual ball of energy and always cheer me up somehow,” Hinkle said.
She added he remembers the little things about students and goes the extra mile to make them feel included.
The impact
Spieldenner said he and Benway didn’t start Lunch Bunch with any expectations of grandeur. They hoped it might have an impact, but didn’t know what that would be.
Now, it’s something that’s been passed down to generations of students, and even a new generation of teachers. Benway’s student teacher, Sanders, was an Ashland High grad herself.
Sanders, now a senior at Ashland University, said she remembered Lunch Bunch as something she enjoyed in high school. But seeing it from the other side and learning from Benway brings a new meaning for her.
“Teaching is more about caring for kids than caring for content,” Sanders said. “I want kids to know they’re loved no matter what because they’re made in God’s image.”
Letting students know they’re cared for has been Lunch Bunch’s goal from the start, according to Benway and Spieldenner.
Spieldenner said it offered a way to celebrate students just for who they are.
At the end of the day, Benway said students bring their difficult life experiences to the table. But, he said, they don’t always want adults to solve it for them.
Sometimes it’s enough to just feel seen, and know that somebody cares about you. That’s what Lunch Bunch does, in his estimation.
“When they feel connected, they’ll share more of themselves,” Benway said.
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