We are thrilled to join in the celebration for School Nutrition Employee Week! All week long, schools across the country will take this opportunity to thank the hardworking school nutrition professionals who work hard to make their kids, their schools, and their communities healthier.
It’s about more than making and serving meals—school nutrition is a balancing act; strict nutrition guidelines, challenging budgets, making meals the students will love, and navigating student allergies—these are just a few of the daily considerations of your “average” school nutrition superhero! We are looking forward to sharing in your celebrations on Facebook and Twitter—don’t forget to like us on Facebook, and follow SNF on Twitter!
In honor of School Nutrition Employee Week, we thought we would share with you some of our favorite interviews, with some of our favorite School Nutrition HEROES, from our blog archives. Last Friday, we shared a link to this interview with Dr. Josephine Martin on our Facebook page; don’t miss our most recent interview with Dr. Martin, including her thoughts on the importance of supporting scholarships for SN professionals.
Another of our favorite pieces is from August 2012; read our interview with Jessica Shelly, Food Services Director at Des Moines Public Schools, to learn about how reimbursable vending machines changed the school breakfast landscape.
More recently, we sat down with Gracie Cavnar of the Recipe for Success Foundation in Houston, TX, to discuss how school gardens and chefs-to-schools programs are bringing kids closer to their food, and encouraging healthier lifestyles for students, and their families.
Just about one year ago, we were checking in with some of our Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom districts to see how their first year of breakfast-in-the-classroom was progressing; check out what Sandy Huisman, Director of Food & Nutrition Management in Des Moines, Iowa and with Amy Dennes, Regional Assistant Superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools, had to say about the value of BIC.
We dug all the way back to 2011 in our archives to pull up this interview with Jan Poppendieck—food activist, author, and professor—in which we discuss the impact universal lunch (and breakfast) could have on school meals. And we could resist re-sharing this two-part story from fall 2012; our interview with Lori Watson Sanders, with Floyd County School Nutrition in Georgia was very moving, and illustrates what a labor of love school nutrition work is for the professionals who make it their life’s work.
Would you like your school breakfast program featured at Beyond Breakfast? Drop us a line in comments, or on Facebook or Twitter, and we will share your story on our blog!