Cafeteria workers and school food professionals are often among a school’s unsung heroes, putting in long hours to prepare nutritious lunches, and even working over the summer to make sure their students are well-fed.
But one professional in Beaverton, Oregon, went the extra mile to help 6-year-old Julian Worsham.
Julian has achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism.
“I’m a little person,” Julian told WHAS11 News. “My bones grow slower.”
Among Julian’s accommodations in school was a lunch cart to help him navigate the lunch room. However, it had been quickly assembled with duct tape and milk crates.
Endelia Mottram, who has served lunch in the Beaverton School District for 18 years, knew he deserved something better. So she talked to her husband, James, a custom metal builder.
“I thought we could do so much more for him, you know,” James told WHAS11. “I wanted to make something cool that he would be happy to push around and be proud of.”
He and his colleagues assembled a sleek, metal cart, complete with handlebar grips and customized features to help Julian carry his lunch and move through the school cafeteria.
Plus, they added some personalized license plates, flame decals, and a matching stool to help Julian peer over the lunch counter.
“He’s independent now,” Endelia said. “Before, a staff member [would] have to be there to help him.”
Julian now feels cool and confident, and his parents were overcome with gratitude.
“I got this cart for lunch, and my favorite part was that it had my license plates, and it had flames on it,” Julian said in a video for Beaverton School District.
“There’s just wonderful people in this world that, you know, they have their eyes open,” his mom, Heather Worsham added, to WHAS11.
“They’re seeing needs that need to be met, and they’re meeting them. I hope that other kids can get their needs met, too, through this.”
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A version of this article was originally published in The 2025 Food Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image courtesy of Beaverton School District
