The School Nutrition Association of North Carolina (SNA-NC) held its Annual Conference June 20-23, 2022, at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, NC. More than 600 school nutrition professionals from across North Carolina participated. The theme of the conference was “Bloom into your Potential.”
Pre-conference workshops kicked off the week offered by the NC Department of Instruction School Nutrition Division. Tuesday evening revealed the winners of the culinary and creative arts competition.
Wednesday morning started off with a trade show of 124 booths. Attendees also attended general sessions and training activities. The conference was closed out with an awards banquet and the installation of a new board of directors. The goal of the conference was to better equip School Nutrition professionals to meet the guidelines to serve children upon returning to school in the fall.
Dawn LaJuett, Assistant Manager of Catawba Springs Elementary School and Tracy Gordon, Child Nutrition Assistant at Battleground Elementary School and Lincolnton Middle School attended the pre-conference workshop New School Nutrition Manager Workshop. Shelly Rhyne, CN Director and Sharon Altemose, Production Manager joined conference attendees Lorie Reece, CN Supervisor and Donna Shuford, Manager of Battleground Elementary School at the New Horizons Trade Show.
In Culinary Arts there are 17 competitive categories in five divisions: 4 categories in School Lunch or Breakfast Plate, 3 categories in Entrée, 4 categories in Single Component Fruit/Vegetable/Grain, 3 categories in Bread, and 3 categories in Dessert.
In Creative Arts there are 4 competitive categories: National School Lunch Week (NSLW) Decoration, National School Breakfast Week Decoration, Farm to School Display, and Decorated Special Occasion Cakes. Plaques and ribbons were awarded to the top
three entries in each category.
A Best of Show trophy was given to winners of each Division. This year
there were 64 participants with 142 entries. Members of the Lincoln County Chapter were recognized for special awards. Donna Shuford won 2nd place for her entry in the Creative Arts-Farm to School Display category. Lorie Reece won 1st place in the NSLW Display category with the theme “Wild About School Lunch” and this entry was also selected as the Best of Show-Creative Arts.
At the Awards Banquet on Thursday evening, Donna Shuford, Lincoln County Chapter President-elect
and Lorie Reece, Chapter Advisor accepted the Chapter of the Year Award for Lincoln County. This is the 15th year that the Lincoln County Chapter has received this award for documenting the specified accomplishments and activities of the chapter for school year 2021-2022. The conference closed with
the installation of state officers for 2022-2023.
At this ceremony, Lorie Reece was installed as the SNA-NC Secretary-Treasurer for the second year of her elected term.
SNA-NC, a state affiliate of the School Nutrition Association, joined school nutrition professionals across the US in supporting legislation to extend the waivers that were adopted through the Covid pandemic. The waivers would help with issues of labor shortages, supply chain issues, cost increases and universal meals for all children. The National School Lunch Program was established in 1946 to promote the health and education of children through local school nutrition programs.
The local, state and national associations are actively involved in affecting public policy to ensure that
the health and nutrition interests of children are protected. Association members work to improve school meal programs by publicizing the nutrition benefits of school meals, being an advocate for local, state and national policies that expand and enhance school nutrition programs and providing professional resources to increase the nutrition, business, culinary and food safety skills of school nutrition professionals.
Original source can be found here.
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