Each month, our staff reads hundreds of media reports on the subject of school nutrition. We curate our favorites in a monthly blog post we call, “In the News.” Highlighting positive stories about the great things going on in school cafeterias helps us in many ways: providing inspiration, connecting school nutrition professionals from across the country, and promoting those programs and individuals who are taking the extra step to make their school nutrition program the very best it can be.
ANC 2015
Naturally the biggest story we covered this month was the School Nutrition Association’s Annual National Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. We spent an incredible week connecting with old friends and making new ones, and we came away—as always—motivated and inspired to do more. Some of our most important “don’t-miss” moments of ANC 2015 include:
- Our Partners for Breakfast in the Classroom education sessions were amazing, and now you can access them online—for free.
- Our most-read story on Facebook this month was this blog post from A Sparkle of Genius—11 Things You May Not Know About the School Nutrition Program—which you viewed almost 4000 times in less than 48 hours!
- Our Annual Fund fundraising efforts at the SNF booth included having member-volunteers on-site to talk about the scholarship opportunities available through SNF thanks to donations to the Annual Fund. You all answered our call! We’ll be announcing the results of our ANC fundraising efforts in coming weeks.
Community Eligibility Provision + Universal Breakfast
Universal breakfast-in-the-classroom and the Community Eligibility Provision are a perfect fit; CEP allows districts to bring universal breakfast within reach, making it financially sustainable for more schools than ever before. Take a look at our recent blog post on school breakfast and breakfast in the classroom resources for school nutrition professionals to learn more about how alternate delivery models and CEP can help you implement BIC and make it sustainable.
Culinary Boot Camps for School Nutrition Professionals
Two stories we shared on the School Nutrition Foundation Facebook page earned a huge response from you, both on culinary boot camps for school nutrition professionals. In Georgia school nutrition managers attended the Culinary Institute for a weeklong training on federal guidelines and personal wellness habits; managers are also given the tools necessary to go back and train others in their districts.
And in South Carolina school nutrition professionals are attending “boot camp” training classes to learn knife and cooking skills to continue moving back toward a scratch menu. This year’s class of 30 school nutrition professionals is the second to complete the training; in its first year after the new scratch cooking program started the district served 38,000 more breakfasts, 106,000 more lunches, and 9,000 more dinners than it did the previous year.
Breakfast-in-the-Classroom Resources
In addition to the link to our list of breakfast-in-the-classroom resources from ANC 2015 linked above, we’d also like to remind you about our summer-long “Resources Roundup” series: