April 30, 2010 -- On Tuesday, April 27, representatives from USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) visited SNA headquarters office to provide an overview of research activities currently being conducted by the Office of Research and Analysis (ORA). Several SNA staff members participated in the briefing. The discussion with ORA is the first installment in a series of briefings that SNA is planning with USDA divisions as it seeks to learn more about the inner workings of these important USDA mission areas. SNA is interested in identifying areas of potential collaboration on research issues between the Association and USDA.
Those presenting at the meeting included: Cindy Long, Director, Child Nutrition Programs USDA/FNS; Jay Hirschman, Director, Special Nutrition Staff, USDA/FNS Office of Research and Analysis; John R. Endahl, Senior Analyst for Special Nutrition, USDA/FNS Office of Research and Analysis; and, Ted Macaluso, Chief, Special Nutrition Evaluation Branch, USDA/FNS Office of Research and Analysis.
Jay Hirschman explains a chart with data about direct certification
During the interactive meeting, Jay Hirschman discussed the Direct Certification Report to Congress and the Regional Office Review of Applications for School Meals which are two recently released annual child nutrition studies. In addition, he discussed the progress on the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study-SNDA IV. Hirschman said that SNDA IV results are expected to be released in December 2011. Ted Macaluso reviewed the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) Evaluation noting that the report is due to Congress in September 2011. Other topics of discussion included direct verification and high risk indicators of certification error in the NSLP. John Endahl introduced several new studies USDA/FNS is working on, including: a Special Nutrition Program Operations Study, Child Nutrition Analysis and Modeling (CNAM) Study and Summer Food for Children Pilot Projects and Evaluation.
USDA/FNS Presenters answer questions from SNA staff
SNA Research Manager Susan Coppess provided an overview of SNA’s Operations Study -- a cornerstone of SNA’s Market Research initiatives. This report includes findings collected from more than 1200 school nutrition directors on key aspects of their programs’ operations. Some of the topics addressed in this robust report include: participation and program trends, nutrition policies, meal prices, food offered and payment systems.
SNA Research Manager provides an overview of SNA's Operations Study
SNA looks forward to scheduling future discussions and briefings with USDA officials as we explore other divisions within the Food and Nutrition Service arena.
April 27, 2010 -- Numerous learning opportunities are available in the coming months via SNF’s Webinar Wednesday Series. Take advantage of one or all of our free webinars! Highlights include:
School food professionals that participate in the national school lunch and breakfast programs are charged with providing good-tasting, low-cost food while simultaneously meeting the United States Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which limits fat and cholesterol. Studies show that this is a challenging issue and many school food service operators are not meeting fat guidelines. Are you interested in hearing about solutions to this problem?
The School Nutrition Foundation in partnership with the National Soybean Research Laboratory will be offering a FREE Wednesday Webinar on Wednesday April 28, 2010 from 2:00-3:15 pm EDT, entitled “Soy Solutions for Schools—offering health filled options for meal planning.”
Click here to register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/825127634
School nutrition professionals are constantly working to make schools healthier. The Fuel Up to Play 60 program can help with those efforts. In this webinar, you will hear from your peers about ways they have used Fuel Up to Play 60 and worked with others in their school to make changes. You will learn valuable information and gain ideas for your program.
The School Nutrition Foundation (SNF) in partnership with the National Dairy Council will be offering a FREE Wednesday Webinar on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 from 2:00-3:15 pm EDT, entitled “Fuel Up to Play 60: Best Practices.”
Click here to register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/544018963
Fiber – you probably know it’s important but aren’t really sure why. And now that fiber is “on trend” and popping up in more and more products, more questions are popping into your head. Is added fiber really beneficial? Which types of fiber should I serve to my students? Aren’t I getting enough fiber on my menu if I’m serving products made with whole grain?
The School Nutrition Foundation (SNF) in partnership with Kellogg’s will be offering a FREE Wednesday Webinar on Wednesday, May 19, 2010 from 2:00-3:15 pm EDT, entitled “Filling Up on Fiber.”
Click here to register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/924384587
April 23, 2010 -- Do you want to do something creative during Global Child Nutrition Month, but worry because you have not started a campaign yet? The Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) has good news for you! GCNF encourages year-round campaigns aimed at increasing awareness of global hunger and raising essential funds to support sustainable school feeding programs. April is simply a great month to begin your efforts to Change Our World. Change our World is GCNF’s annual campaign to raise awareness and to raise funds for global school feeding programs. GCNF is grateful to our Change Our World supporters in industry, the Congress and among School Nutrition professionals. NUTRIKIDS generously committed to be a GCNF Change Our World Partner over a two-year period and plays an active role in the annual Wellness Event to Change Our World. J&J Snack Foods will donate a portion of the proceeds received through their Caring With Cookies campaign. Recently, Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) introduced a resolution on March 19, 2010, dedicating April as Global Child Nutrition Month with co-sponsorship from Jim McGovern (D-MA). Schools have the power to raise awareness and funds to support anti-hunger initiatives. GCNF has prepared a list of “Top 10 Fundraising Ideas for Schools to Change Our World,” which you can view here (pdf). Please tell us what you are doing in your district to support global school feeding programs. Submit your fundraising stories to GCNF at gcnf@schoolnutrition.org. We would love to hear from you! Participate! It’s Not to Late to help make sure that children across the globe have access to the nutrition they need to be ready to learn and to lead healthy, productive lives.
April 20, 2010 - This morning, Mission: Readiness, a national organization of retired senior military leaders, warned that the nation’s childhood obesity crisis is affecting the pool of qualified military recruits. The report, Too Fat to Fight, calls on Congress to take action through Child Nutrition Reauthorization to strengthen current nutrition standards, provide increased funding for the school nutrition programs, and support school-based public health education initiatives. Military leaders are concerned that the current, growing rate of childhood obesity poses a serious threat to U.S. national security. The Army’s Accessions Command, which is charged with recruiting and initial training of new Army recruits, estimates that 27 percent of all Americans 17 to 24 years of age are too heavy to join the military. Overweight is now the most common medical reason for rejection of new recruits.
To solve this crisis, the retired military leaders are calling on Congress to:
While this morning’s Associated Press story characterized school meals as unhealthy and a “threat to national security,” the report actually cites school meals as an important part of the solution. It notes that school meals are a stable source of good nutrition for many low-income children, citing research that shows school meals help children maintain a healthy weight.
Too Fat to Fight - Report
April 20, 2010 -- As part of the National School Breakfast Week 2010 campaign, “School Breakfast – Ready, Set, Go!”, SNA gave students the opportunity to answer the question “What does School Breakfast get you ready for?” by completing the blank “School Breakfast – Ready Set Go ______!” and illustrating their answer.
SNA is now proud to announce the three national winners of the “School Breakfast – Ready, Set, Go!” Contest:
All three students were very excited to learn they had won and will be receiving a prize pack which includes a Barnes & Noble gift certificate.
SNA received over 600 awesome entries to the national portion of the School Breakfast – Ready, Set, Go!” Contest and would like to thank everybody for taking part. We hope your National School Breakfast Week 2010 was a GO!
We would also like to thank General Mills Foodservice for helping make the “School Breakfast – Ready, Set, Go!” campaign possible.
April 16, 2010—SNA members know that school meals provide children with the energy they need to perform their best in the classroom. A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Adolescent and School Health sheds further light on another aspect of the school experience that can have a positive effect on academic performance—school-based physical activity.
In The Association Between School-Based Physical Activity, Including Physical Education, and Academic Performance, researchers found that school-based physical activity may help improve students’ grades and test scores and positively affect other factors that influence academic achievement. The report also concludes that adding time during the school day for physical activity does not appear to take away from academic performance.
Based on an examination of previous studies pertaining to physical activity in schools, the report authors note that schools can use several strategies to help students meet national physical activity recommendations without detracting from academic performance. For example, schools might consider offering increased physical education time, using trained instructors and increasing the amount of active time during physical education class.
Also according to the report, school leaders can feel confident that participating in recess on a regular basis may have a positive impact on students’ academic performance. In addition, teachers and other school professionals can try to make time for classroom-based physical activity and encourage their students to participate in extracurricular physical activities.
Report executive summary (pdf)
Complete report (pdf)
April 14, 2010 - On March 17th, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) introduced the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, the draft Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill. SNA supports this legislation, which is a strong first step toward strengthening these programs and acknowledges the need to increase funding for school meals. While the legislation would boost funding for the federal child nutrition programs by $450 million per year, including a performance-based 6 cent increase in the federal reimbursement rate for school lunches, additional efforts are needed to reach the $1 billion per year increase requested by President Barack Obama. Representative Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) are asking Members of Congress to sign onto a letter encouraging Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to identify potential funding to meet the President's $1 billion per year request. Please take a moment to contact your Member of Congress and ask them to sign onto this important letter. Click on the following link for an action alert with a suggested letter you can send to your Member of Congress.
Action Alert: Support Increased Funding for the Child Nutrition Programs
April 9, 2010 – A number of recent news stories and columns regarding the ABC Network series Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution have shed light on the challenges faced by school nutrition programs, including budgetary constraints, complex nutritional standards and children’s food preferences.
SNA members may be interested in reading the news articles at the links below. For more resources on how to promote your programs and respond to questions in your community about Food Revolution, please click here. SNA will continue to update this page with new articles as they are released.
“What’s Wrong with School Lunches?,” by Laura Vanderkam, AOL News
“How TV Superchef Jamie Oliver's 'Food Revolution' Flunked Out,” by Arun Gupta, AlterNet
“What Would Jamie Do?” by John Lawn, Food Management Magazine
“Survey: Kids spurn celeb chef’s healthy lunches,” by Vicki Smith, Associated Press
April 5, 2010—April is an exciting time of year for many reasons—spring has arrived, the end of the school year is in sight for students and the themes and menus for the upcoming National School Lunch Week (NSLW) and National School Breakfast Week (NSBW) are revealed. The April issue of School Nutrition, SNA’s award-winning flagship publication, provides details about these exciting events and offers ideas for planning related promotions and activities.
“School Lunch: What’s on Your Plate?” showcases the theme for this October’s NSLW that’s sure to resonate with students and staff alike. This year’s theme not only offers great menu options, but also provides fun ideas to celebrate the unique and varied interests of your students.
Speaking of NSLW, school nutrition professionals scored a slam dunk with the promotions and fun menu ideas they came up with for last year’s event. Check out “Nothing But Net for School Nutrition” for a replay of all of the action.
But lunch isn’t the only school meal that’s available to many students, of course. Breakfast is an essential part of your students’ day, and in “School Breakfast Detectives,” junior detectives Marlowe and Cassie team up to help teach your students all about how healthy breakfasts give them the energy they need to be their best. The article also features recipes designed to get your students in the breakfast spirit.
In addition to serving and planning breakfast and lunch in their districts, a number of school nutrition professionals headed to Jacksonville, Fla., earlier this year for SNA’s Child Nutrition Industry Conference (CNIC). Take a look at the highlights of this important event in “CNIC Tops the Leaderboard.”
School Nutrition—April 2010
April 2, 2010—The School Nutrition Association regrets to announce that Vivian Pilant, PhD, RD, SNS, who served as SNA president in 1994-95, passed away March 29, 2010, at age 69. Dr. Pilant was the retired director of school food services for the State of South Carolina. She is survived by her husband, Tom, two daughters and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Funeral services were scheduled for Friday, April 2, in Columbia, Tenn.
Vivian Pilant, PhD, RD, SNS
Pilant began her first job in school nutrition as director of school foodservices and nutrition education in Weakley County (Tenn.) Schools in 1966 after receiving an undergraduate degree in vocational home economics from University of Tennessee-Martin in 1965. Early in her career, she joined what was then the American School Food Service Association (ASFSA). After receiving her master’s degree in institutional management (now called food systems administration) from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 1970 (with assistance from a scholarship from ASFSA’s School Food Service Foundation), she moved to Jacksonville, Fla., where she served as coordinator of foodservices for Duval County Schools until 1975.
For the next step in her career, Pilant moved to South Carolina and became the state nutritionist for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program under the South Carolina Department of Health. “Getting away from school foodservice for those two years and working with public health, I realized that… [s]chool foodservice is truly a community program involving the whole community,” she said in a School Nutrition profile article in 1994.
Shortly thereafter, Pilant returned to school foodservice as state director of South Carolina’s child nutrition programs. There, she oversaw the Nutrition Education and Training Program, the School Breakfast Program, the National School Lunch Program and the Food Distribution Program. During her long tenure with the South Carolina Department of Education, she earned her doctorate in human ecology, with a major concentration in nutrition service from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2004.
Before serving as Association president, Pilant chaired SNA’s Public Policy & Legislative Committee. Over the course of her different positions, she testified before Congress five times—and legislators listened. During her presidential year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed regulations to mandate the use of technology-dependent Nutrient-Standard Menu Planning (NSMP). SNA worked to convince USDA of the impracticality of an NSMP-exclusive program, and Pilant appeared on television to further advocate for appropriate and achievable change.
SNA ultimately persuaded Congress to legislate food-based menu planning as an option. In addition, the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 1994 expanded the school breakfast program and called for the authorization and funding of the National Food Service Management Institute. Also during Pilant’s term, Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years, introducing a welfare reform measure that would eliminate federal school-based child nutrition programs in favor of block grants made to states. The bill ultimately was defeated in the Senate.
In addition to her national SNA work, Pilant remained active at the state affiliate level, as well as in the American Dietetic Association (ADA) and the Society for Nutrition Education and she served on several advisory councils and committees. She was honored by South Carolina’s governor in 1994 for her service to the state with the Order of Palmetto, the state’s highest civilian award. She also was the 1997 recipient of the FAME Silver Friend of Child Nutrition Award and earned ADA’s Medallion Award.
Pilant’s fellow SNA past presidents represent the Association’s membership, leadership and staff in grieving her passing and lauding her accomplishments. “Beyond any doubt, Vivian was our role model for courage, faith and the joy of living,” noted Gene White, RD, SNS, 1977-78 SNA president.
“She was a mentor and friend to so many of us. Her unfailing bravery throughout her struggles with cancer was inspirational,” echoed Gaye Lynn MacDonald, SNS, 2002-03 SNA president.
“I admired her each and every time I saw her. She just never gave up,” said Karen Johnson, SNS, 2004-05 SNA president.
Pilant’s family invites memorials to be made to the Dr. Vivian B. Pilant Scholarship Fund, School Nutrition Association of South Carolina, P.O. Box 1795, Columbia, SC 29202.
Vivian Pilant, PhD, SNS Obituary