News & Events from 2012
2012 Holiday Party (picture album)
Nicole Dabbs named December 2012 – Student of the Month
Nicole Dabbs, a University of Mississippi doctoral student in Health and Kinesiology, has been named the School of Applied Sciences Student of the Month for December 2012. Read full story…
Catherine Woodyard named November 2012 – Student of the Month
Catherine Woodyard, a University of Mississippi graduate student in health behavior and health promotion, has been named the Applied Sciences Student of the Month for November. Read full story…
Katie Kaiser named October 2012 – Student of the Month
Katie Kaiser a senior majoring in Hospitality Management within the School of Applied Sciences at The University of Mississippi in Oxford takes the meaning of “hospitality management” to a new level. Read full story…
2012 Commencement Photo Album
Photos from the 2012 Applied Sciences graduation are now online! See the photo album.
White House Chef Speaks on Healthy Lunches
March 30, 2012 By Lindsey Abernathy
White House assistant chef Sam Kass spoke to K-12 nutrition leaders at the University of Mississippi Wednesday about a national movement to improve the quality of school meals through the Chefs Move to Schools program, part of first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative.
Kass’ address was part of the National Food Service Management Institute’s second Major Cities Training Symposium, which attracts chefs and nutrition directors from the 40 largest school districts in the U.S. to discuss healthy food initiatives &emdash; including changes to the nation’s meal pattern &emdash; strategies and challenges faced by the country’s schools.
“There’s not a school chef who doesn’t have limited resources, a very limited kitchen and very little time to serve a lot of kids,” said Kass, who is also senior policy adviser for healthy food initiatives for the White House. “These are challenges every day that folks are overcoming. I think they’re heroes. I think folks are coming together; they’re understanding their role even better, and they’re realizing that ‘Yes, we do great work, but we have some real improvements we can make.’ We’re seeing incredible changes across the country.”
The symposium, hosted in partnership with the School Nutrition Association and U.S. Department of Agriculture, was created in 2011 to address the challenges large school districts face, said Katie Wilson, executive director of NFSMI.
“These school districts serve 80 percent of children in America,” Wilson said. “The lowest enrollment is about 85,000. They have some very significant training needs because of their size. They might have 500 vacancies in the kitchen at one time. How do you deal with substitutes? How do you train that many people with a limited budget?”
With more than 31 million children participating in the National School Lunch Program, initiatives such as Chefs Move to Schools, which pairs local chefs with schools to help educate children about nutrition and healthy lifestyles, can have a significant impact on childhood obesity rates, which have tripled in the past three decades &emdash; nearly one in three children in America is overweight or obese.
“The work that you guys are doing is so critical to the future of this nation,” Kass said to the symposium participants. “Everywhere I go, and everywhere the first lady goes, we’re just blown away by the commitment to our kids’ health, the dedication on a daily basis. Schools are the heart and soul of a kid’s life, and we know they need to be places that foster support and the healthy well-being of our kids.”
Sam Kass, White House Assistant Chef and Senior Policy Adviser for Healthy Food Initiatives, speaks at the second annual Major Cities Training Symposium at the National Food Service Management Institute Wednesday, March 28. (Photo by Nathan Latil/UM Communications)
Robin Gourlay of the Scottish Government Food and Drink Industry Division also spoke at the symposium, via webinar, on Scotland’s “Hungry for Success” nutrition overhaul, as well as the unique school lunch system in the East Ayrshire school district. Like America, the United Kingdom’s obesity rate lands it in the top three worldwide.
“We have a professional partnership with the UK,” said Wilson. “They’ve put in very strict nutrition standards in their schools, only they did it with a commercial look and a sort of commercial feel to their cafeterias. East Ayrshire is a rural community &emdash; it’s a whole different perspective of how school nutrition runs there.”
Seventy percent of food served in East Ayrshire is locally produced, while 90 percent is unprocessed, and 35 percent is organic &emdash; qualities that have gained the school district international recognition as one of the most creative school food systems in the world.
Other speakers included Janey Thornton, USDA/Food and Nutrition Service deputy undersecretary, who discussed the changes to the school lunch patterns, which include the addition of more leafy greens, orange vegetables and legumes to school menus, and provided updates from the USDA; Lindsay Graham, independent school food and health adviser and registered nurse; and Kevin Roberts, executive director for the Center of Excellence for Food Safety Research in Child Nutrition Programs. The symposium also offered training opportunities and resource tables from 10 nonprofits including the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, the National Dairy Council and the Centers for Disease Control.
Wednesday’s activities ended with a chef cook-off, during which teams of chefs created meals using ingredients from the new school menu pattern. The cook-off was judged by NFSMI staff and Lafayette Middle School students.
On Thursday, participants took part in a food defense tabletop exercise in partnership with the USDA Food Safety section.
“For our district, we come to the symposium partially so we can see what other large districts are doing and be able to improve the services we offer,” said Debra Ann Brunner, supervising dietitian for Milwaukee Public Schools. “It’s also to hear updates as well.”
The Milwaukee Public School District consists of 142 schools and 87,000 students. Representatives from the school district also attended the inaugural Major Cities Training Symposium.
While the symposium ended on Thursday, the effort to improve school meals, promote healthy lifestyles among the nation’s youth and combat obesity continues nationwide.
“This is much bigger than just serving school meals,” Kass said. “It’s so important in our nation for our kids’ lives. The first lady knows that, the president knows that, and we’re going to work really hard to support the effort in any way we can. It’s about being a strong, young kid. That’s what we’re after.”
The NFSMI, part of the UM School of Applied Sciences, is dedicated to providing information and services that promote continuous improvement of child nutrition programs. It was established in 1989 by Congress and funded at the UM campus by a grant administered by USDA and FNS in 1991. The institute is the only federally funded national center with a focus on applied research, education and training, and technical assistance for school nutrition programs.
- For more information on the NFSMI, visit: www.nfsmi.org.
- To learn more about Chefs Move to Schools, visit: www.chefsmovetoschools.org
- Published on Z!ng @ https://zing.olemiss.edu/white-house-chef-speaks-on-healthy-lunches/