Maria Steininger

In 1990, she worked for a nonprofit in Sumner, Vadis Northwest, where she supervised young adults with developmental disabilities in a warehouse setting. She would track their behaviors and productivity as they assembled cardboard partitions. She was in that position for a little over a year before her life would take a series of twists and turns that, thankfully placed her at the doorstep of 5136 N. 26th Street in Tacoma at the D. A. Gonyea Branch.

While attending Pierce College in 1996, Maria was urged to volunteer at the D.A. Gonyea branch. At the time she did not realize what a life changing decision it would be. She began assisting the USDA Cook with food preparation and meal service. The club atmosphere had an immediate pull on her heart. It was this attraction that kept her coming back. She worked part-time concessions for both soccer and basketball seasons. She prepared dinners for the families participating in the Parenting Plus classes offered at Downing Elementary school. Her early efforts also included coordinating dinner banquets for the Tacoma Kiwanis club, and Gonyea Swim Team.

Within a year she became the USDA cook and still remembers the summers where she regularly fed more than 100 kids for lunch. This was well before the commercial kitchen upgrade at Gonyea, but she loved the challenge.

In 1998 the USDA Food Program was in a state of arrears as the result of audit findings of 24% error rate in the annual enrollment study month. Maria’s current position was created to improve the monitoring and administration of food program operations. She provided the leadership and direction to the USDA staff to exceed their program goals. Audit results in 2000 found that the program had just 3% error rate; a significant improvement indeed.

She is responsible for nurturing partnerships with Food LifeLine, Salvation Army and Childrens Alliance in her continuous desire to provide healthy nutritional meals to the youth that we serve.

Maria holds steadfast to the belief that the key to success is to fall in love with what you do. She has found her niche in life and it is as a Treasure Hunter with the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound.

Definition of a Treasure Hunter: A caring adult who searches beneath the surface to find all the talents, skills, characteristics and intelligence which may be buried in our children and youth ( and can be easily overlooked), but when discovered enriches our world.