School nutrition as prominently in the national spotlight as it has ever been. There are more groups participating in the conversation than ever before: school food professionals, administrators, teachers, custodians, and parents, are being joined by politicians, the media, and many health organizations. These factions must work together to ensure the health of our students…
The proposed meal patterns made prominent headlines in November, as Congress considered the now-famous “pizza-as-a-vegetable” question. There was hardly a media outlet that didn’t turn the spotlight, at least briefly, to the questions surrounding the proposed meal patterns and the role Congress should play in the regulatory processes of developing nutrition standards for school meals.…
The School Nutrition Foundation is excited to announce the latest addition to our Webinar Wednesday schedule, to be held on December 14, 2011. Please register now and join us on December 14 for Chefs in Schools: Increasing Participation and Gaining Renewed Excitement Around Your School Meal Program. Our learning objectives for this next installment of…
The warm glow of the holiday season is upon us, and many of us are already looking forward to gathering around the dinner table with family and friends. The act of sharing a meal is an important, meaningful ritual shared across cultures; it is a universal human experience, something we have in common with people…
Each year since 2007, Winston Industries has demonstrated its commitment to food service by awarding one school the Winston Industries Equipment Award Grant. The recipient is always a school district in need of improvement of its school meal kitchen facilities. The 2010 winner was Gaston County Schools of North Carolina, and the 2011 award winner…
If you have been reading Beyond Breakfast for awhile you might remember that I used to live in Fairbanks, Alaska, where two of my best friends worked for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension doing food research and education outreach. I recently reached out to my friend Kate Idzorek to talk with her about…
The month of October has many daily, weekly, and monthly observances for raising awareness. Most famously October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and we love that they have a section of their website dedicated to healthy recipes for readers. Parents, students, and school food professionals also have reason to celebrate in October, because October is…
Next week we celebrate National School Lunch Week, and the theme for 2011 is “School Lunch–Let’s Grow Healthy.” The themes for NSLW and its companion celebration, National School Breakfast Week (NSBW), were announced at the 2011 Annual National Conference in Nashville. (Mark your calendars for NSBW, which is coming up in Spring 2012: “School Breakfast…
Last summer we brought you information about meal patterns from the Annual National Conference in Nashville. At the conference we held sessions for school nutrition professionals, where the discussion centered around the USDA-proposed meal pattern changes that are on the horizon for school meals. We wanted to follow up with some additional information for our…
We know that breakfast in the classroom is newsworthy–and the media thinks so, too! We were pleased to see this recent op-ed in The Washington Post that highlights breakfast in the classroom. It is so important to continue this discussion about the benefits of what breakfast in the classroom for students. Universal, in-classroom breakfast programs…
