ST. CLOUD (WJON News) — The 69th annual Minnesota School Nutrition Association Conference is coming to St. Cloud in early August. Over 600 attendees will be at the River’s Edge Convention Center on Sunday, August 2nd, through Wednesday, August 5th.
Glen Ritter is the Minnesota School Nutrition Association President and also the Food Service Director at St. Michael-Albertville schools.
He says school lunchrooms are much more creative now than in past decades.
All of the school nutrition professionals across the state want kids to eat food that is minimally processed, but tastes great. The days of everything that’s pizza, nuggets, and mac & cheese are going by the wayside.
Ritter says they’ll have one of the largest school nutrition hall shows in the Midwest with over 160 vendor booths. He says they’ll also have several speakers talking about farm-to-school options.
We do have some great sessions working with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Just to help give people some ideas on things they can do, and hear some of the success stories from other school districts.
Topics include “Farm to Kids Minnesota Results Revealed”, “From Farm to Lunch Tray: How to Make Protein Exciting, Understandable, and Kid-Approved”, and “Farm-to-school Culinary Training”.
Some of the other conference speakers topics include: “Special Menu Days Made Easy and Local”, “Elevating K-12 Speed Scratch Meals with Spice Pairings”, and “Promoting Your Program Through Food Photography”.
Come with us as we visit Darwin, Minnesota in pictures
Twine Ball Museum and More