By Josalyn Miller
District Head Cook CCSD No. 2
Carbon County School District 2 was recognized for its commitment to providing nutritious meals to our students at the Healthy Meals Incentives Fall Summit in Las Vegas. Our district was awarded the Innovative School Lunch Makeover Award, specifically for our Bison Meatball Sub Sandwich and Roasted Potatoes. There were three district representatives, District Head Cook Josalyn Miller, Assistant Cooks Megan Davies-Jones, and Lorraine Howe.
The Healthy Meals Incentives Summit was free for awardees to travel to and attend. The Summit brought together school nutrition professionals from across the country to share best practices and celebrate successes in their journey to improve the quality of school meals.
During the Summit we were able to attend classes from other nutritional professionals, the USDA, the Institute of Child Nutrition, the Culinary Institute of America, the Chef Ann Foundation, and more. It was a great experience to be able to gain knowledge and techniques from other schools around the country.
The Summit started off with a student chef competition, where four students from Las Vegas area schools competed to create a fully reimbursable meal and win prizes for their schools. The students were paired with professional chefs, and together, they created some amazing dishes that will soon be featured on ‘The Lunch Box’ resources page. We are hoping to put together something similar for the district as well.
We were also very excited to make some connections with other school nutritional professionals who have come up with some fun ways to offer more choices for their secondary students, which we are hoping to incorporate very soon. It was really uplifting to see so many people, from all over the country, all working for the same goals: to improve the quality of student meals and to encourage healthier eating habits that will stay with them for a lifetime.
