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Mile High City Hosts School Nutri­tion Asso­ci­a­tions’ 66th Annual Conference

Thou­sands of school nutri­tion pro­fes­sion­als packed the Col­orado Con­ven­tion Cen­ter in Den­ver July 14th-18th 2012 to attend the School Nutri­tion Association’s annual con­fer­ence. There was plenty to do at this con­fer­ence; from edu­ca­tional ses­sions on the new meal pat­terns, Chef’s Move to Schools and USDA Foods to the large exhibit hall filled with hun­dreds of booths of tasty new prod­ucts for school dis­tricts to try, a Well­ness Vil­lage where you could enjoy a free chair mas­sage to reju­ve­nate you and let’s not for­get the oppor­tu­nity to have your pic­ture taken with The Avengers. The con­fer­ence was a help­ful resource for many as school pro­fes­sion­als scram­ble to imple­ment new meal pat­tern reg­u­la­tions for school year 2013 set forth by USDA.

The con­fer­ence kicked off with gen­eral ses­sions includ­ing Denise Austin, who came to prove to us YOU CAN DO IT, White House Chef Sam Kass and food advo­cate Phil Lem­pert speak­ing about the “Chopped” show fea­tur­ing four out­stand­ing school nutri­tion staff who take school lunch above and beyond and lastly, the first female “Biggest Loser” Ali Vin­cent who proved to us all if you ded­i­cate your­self to achiev­ing your goals, you will indeed suc­ceed. Many of the edu­ca­tional ses­sions were geared towards help­ing to imple­ment new guide­lines that are required for schools par­tic­i­pat­ing in the National School Lunch Pro­gram begin­ning July 1, 2012 in school dis­tricts all around the country.

Many walked away with a bet­ter under­stand­ing of these reg­u­la­tions which include increased fruits and veg­eta­bles, more whole grains and lower calo­ries and sodium. This was a time for us all to have a chance to really net­work and share ideas of how to not only imple­ment these reg­u­la­tions but how to com­mu­ni­cate them to admin­is­tra­tion, teach­ers, par­ents and most impor­tantly, stu­dents. Chef’s Move to School was also another hot topic of inter­est at the con­fer­ence, pro­vid­ing infor­ma­tion on how it works, how chefs and schools can get involved and what roles chefs and school nutri­tion pro­fes­sion­als play to make the pro­gram suc­cess­ful. More Infor­ma­tion on these and other edu­ca­tional ses­sions can be found at http://www.schoolnutrition.org/Level2_ANC2012.aspx?id=17441.

As a first timer to this con­fer­ence, I was in a state of shock at all of the infor­ma­tion avail­able to you. So I leave these few tips for next years’ con­fer­ence. Come with a game plan. Map out the edu­ca­tional ses­sions that are a pri­or­ity to you. I found that cre­at­ing a “map” was extremely help­ful for the rest of the con­fer­ence. Using the pro­vided agenda can help you cre­ate your own jour­ney through this excit­ing con­fer­ence. You will want to break up the exhibit hall into the entire three days. There is a lot of stuff to try, a lot of infor­ma­tion to get and of course fun con­tests and photo oppor­tu­ni­ties that you don’t want to miss out on. Bring an extra suit­case. You def­i­nitely come home with more than you went with. Lastly, have fun. After all, we can’t be seri­ous every sec­ond of the day. If you haven’t attended this con­fer­ence and you are a school nutri­tion pro­fes­sional, it’s highly encour­aged you attend. It’s a great way to net­work and walk away with some amaz­ing infor­ma­tion. Hope to see you in 2013 in Kansas City!