Minnesota School Nutrition Association

Area of focus i: voice of School nutritionthe Minnesota School Nutrition Association (msna) held its annual day at the capitol on february 21, 2023, where School nutritional professionals were able to visit with 13 legislators on the importance of School Nutrition and focus on why all students in Minnesota schools should have free meals. It is important to fuel our students so they can concentrate on the importance of their academic success. Our ppl chair, darcy stueber, and our lobbyist, sam walseth, have testified numerous times in front of the house of representatives as well as the senate to make this possible in the state of Minnesota for students. "healthy School meals for all" was the slogan for our issue paper. Healthy School meals for all provides all students equal access to School breakfast and lunch and eliminates any stigma or barriers for students to benefit from nutritional meals. This will support student learning, improve attendance and classroom behavior, and improve overall health and wellness. Minnesota did succeed and passed free meals for all students who participate in the national School lunch and School breakfast programs.msna president and president-elect presented a seminar at the Minnesota School board Association conference on january 12, 2023, on School meal debt - "collaborating for a better outcome for schools and students". The seminar discussed meal charge policies that are in place in districts, the importance of communication between the School district and parents, the importance of filling out the application for education benefits, and the various ways it can benefit the district.area of focus ii: career development and growthmsna has implemented a new mentorship program. This program will allow a new director to connect with a current director who is willing to mentor them. The two of them will connect several times throughout the year. This program will help new directors succeed in their School Nutrition profession and allow them to grow with their program.at our conference in august 2023, msna had the Nutrition 101 class and the 8-hour servsafe class. This allowed our attendees to become level 1 certified without online classes. The sns exam was also presented at our annual conference to allow our members to continue to grow as School Nutrition professionals. Msna's membership chair and president created a slide show to teach districts about sna/msna. The program explains the sna certificate levels and how they align with the usda standards, training options that are available in person and online, certificate program scholarships available through msna/sna, and conference information.area of focus iii: stakeholder communitymsna had robust attendance at the snip (School Nutrition industry partners) conference. Breakout sessions allowed different opportunities that addressed School Nutrition concerns in a variety of different ways. The collaboration of both industry and School Nutrition professionals worked with joe petitt, our host speaker, with both networking and team-building experiences. Msna is building a network with our industry members as well as our School Nutrition staff to have 1:1 connection. The industry members are bringing their skills forward to assist in kitchens as needed with the School Nutrition members. This includes serving students, offering students samples, and showing new foods that have been created for the k-12 line. Msna had numerous industry members at the lac 2023 in Washington dc. They were there on behalf of their concern with the usda standards change and how it would affect them as well as the students in the schools. School nutritional professionals work hard to make nutritious meals appealing so students continue to consume them. That is what is most important to achieve in their academic success. Msna was able to reach out to all 10 of Minnesota's congressional representatives to voice our concerns with the changes.area of focus iv: thriving organizationa program was set up for members to attend a conference with the help of a scholarship. An education raffle is done at our annual conference to make the funds available to do this. 13 members applied members were awarded $500.00 scholarships. The conferences msna included were the national leadership conference, snip (School Nutrition industry partner) conference, legislative conference, and anc. Members were very pleased that msna could make these funds available for them to help make it a reality.msna implemented a more inclusive process for the selection of the awards. Award winners were recognized with an in-person presentation from an msna board member, an msna facebook photo, and a press release that was written up about their accomplishments and the professionalism they bring to their district in the state of Minnesota. Award winners were also acknowledged at the state conference with a certificate and an apple award.msna's membership chair, Nutrition chair, and education chair worked together and implemented the lunch hero challenge at the conference last year in august. This gave members a team-building experience with other colleagues to show off their superhero skills and complete four "win it" challenges. This challenge was so well-received that they asked to have it back in august at our next conference.