On May 15 & 16, 2015, I am a motivational speaker for the Florida School Nutrition Association Conference in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Over 600 school nutrition staff will attend from across florida. This includes directors of food and nutrition services, area supervisors, school food service managers and front line staff including cooks, servers and cashiers.
In the last 3 years, florida has moved their school nutrition program from under the department of education to the department of agriculture.
This has been a very strong, positive move. From farm to school is the moto many of the schools are adopting, trying to get local produce into the school lunch programs.
The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) has been implementing regulations annually to maintain a high level of nutrition in the school lunch program. This means that school districts must adjust their menus regularly to reflect lower salt, sugar and fat content. This is no easy change.
Often kids retaliate because they prefer the salty, sugary food. Staff don't tend to love the change either, as it throws of menus, budgets and more. For industry partners it is also hard to keep up with these demands.
The theme of the event, Singing in Unison is to reflect the change in the industry. All partners from agriculture, education, suppliers, etc are working to together in unison to make this change successful.
This dedicated audience is bound by the compelling purpose to help kids be healthy, happy and productive through proper nutrition. Food service staff see children through their education from Kindergarden upwards. Whereas a teacher may have a student for one year, these professionals help guide and feed kids through their school experience.
If students do qualify to be on the program, the school nutrition program must meet certain standards to get reimbursement.
I am looking forward to being a funny motivational speaker for the Florida School Nutrition Conference. My job is to get them laughing and connecting with each other to kick the event off. I will also present the motivational speech, I Love My Job, it's the People I Can't Stand!
