Teacher keeps eyes on true prize

Stacy Stamm just won $120,000 in the state lottery, but she’s staying focused on student nutrition.Winning $120,000 from the California Lottery isn’t blurring Stacy Stamm’s focus on her job.

Stamm, the nutritional services supervisor for Estancia High School, spent Monday talking as much about how she works to promote healthy school lunches and nutritional education for students as she did about the thrill of spinning the lottery’s big wheel.

With a ticket purchased at a Ralph’s grocery store, Stamm advanced immediately to the “Big Spin” television appearance by matching three “SPIN” symbols on her scratcher, gaining a chance to win up to $3 million.

The show aired at 7 p.m. Saturday on Channel 9. Stamm said she threw a party that night, viewing the show at home with her two daughters and some close friends.

“It was funny seeing myself on TV, like hearing yourself on a tape recorder,” Stamm said.

After first spinning a triple, which gives contestants a second spin plus triple whatever the marker falls on, Stamm said she held her breath as the tab slowed, passing just over the $1 million dollar mark to hit $40,000. That amount, tripled, brought her winnings to $120,000.

The Huntington Beach resident has already purchased a boat with her winnings, although she has not yet received her check from the lottery commission. The 30-foot boat, named Big Spin, will be berthed in Huntington Harbour, she said.

Her plans for the boat? “Maybe someday I’ll bring it to San Francisco, if I get really brave,” Stamm said. “It would be beautiful.”

For now, though, she’s mainly concerned with providing Estancia students with nutritious meals and teaching them the importance of balanced meals for success in school.

The first school in the area to eliminate sodas from the campus, Estancia puts a spin on traditional ideas about cafeteria food, she said.

“We’re trying to promote good nutritional choices,” Stamm said, clearly more interested in talking about student nutrition than her $120,000.

“We’re trying to give more variety -- not just hamburgers, but different styles of food.” The school now offers low-fat cookies, produce bars and ethnically themed meals.

“We provide breakfast, a nutritional snack and lunch. Over 600 served in the morning and over 600 at lunchtime,” Stamm said. “We’re trying to get the other students in, make it more inviting and appealing.”

“I see a great opportunity to bring in more customers to our cafeteria and show them a wide variety of nutritional options,” Stamm said.

Stamm began her job with Estancia High three weeks ago, after working her way up through the ranks in the nutrition department of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Now in charge of supervising the entire food service operation, Stamm oversees staffing schedules, implements state sanitation guidelines, orders products and works to provide healthy meal choices for Estancia students.

“The good meals help them learn and do well in their studies. That’s what I want to get across; it’s not just buying coke and junk food,” Stamm said. “If we can teach them at an early age, hopefully it will be good choices they can make for the rest of their lives.”20060131itxj8ancKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Stacy Stamm, the nutrition services supervisor at Estancia High School, won $120,000 in the state lottery and bought a boat that she named Big Spin.