The Healthy Meals Summit held in St. Louis earlier this month provided carriers with an opportunity to connect with their colleagues. | Photo: Shutterstock
Earlier this month, hundreds of school nutrition professionals from small districts and rural areas across the country traveled to St. Louis for three days of networking and idea-sharing.
The event, dubbed the Healthy Meals Summit, is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Healthy Meals Incentive (HMI), which helps strengthen supply chains and provides resources to schools looking to incorporate more homemade meals. This is an initiative aimed at providing.
USDA partnered with the nonprofit organization Action for Healthy Kids (AHK) to bring HMI to life. For AHK Executive Director and President Rob Bischegly, working with the Department of Agriculture on HMI was a no-brainer.
“I’ve been doing this work for Action for Healthy Kids for 16 years, and in that time I’ve never seen an opportunity like this come around again,” he says.
AHK also worked with the Chef Anne Foundation and RMC Health to help oversee this effort, which included multiple summits (including one in St. Louis) and a grant and recognition program for school nutrition providers.
Here, take a look at how Bisceglier and the team were able to provide a platform for operators to meet face-to-face and share their homemade meal successes and challenges.
Providing a place to connect
First and foremost, the goal of the St. Louis Summit was to provide a space for grantees to gather, connect, and share best practices.
During the event, attendees were able to take part in various sessions and cooking demonstrations.
One of the standout sessions for Bisceglier was a panel discussion in which school food providers spoke about the current challenges facing their districts and how they are working to overcome them.
“They all had their own strategies for how to best serve the children in their communities,” he says.
Bisceglier said events like this are important for K-12 providers, especially those working in smaller districts or areas outside of major towns and cities.
“They come from small rural communities and unfortunately don’t have many opportunities to participate in events like this,” he points out.
Take it one step further
The Healthy Meals Summit in St. Louis is the first of three summits that Action for Healthy Kids will host through HMI. The next event is scheduled for this fall in Las Vegas and will be an expanded version of the St. Louis Summit.
This event is aimed at school food professionals who have won the HMI Recognition Award. Winners will receive travel expenses to attend the summit. The HMI Recognition Awards program is accepting applications until June 2025, but operators interested in participating in this fall’s summit should apply for the award by the end of June 2024 to be considered. there is.
Bisceglier and his team are preparing for the Las Vegas Summit, using feedback from the first summit to shape the content of the next event. One of the biggest requests from administrators is to provide more in-depth sessions that look more closely at how to provide more home-cooked meals to students.
The AFHK team will work with the Chef Anne Foundation and RMC Health to find ways to provide sessions that meet these needs. Another important part of the session content revolves around the school nutrition experts themselves sharing a detailed overview of their journey to providing homemade meals.
“They put in the work every day, and if we can put them on a pedestal and allow them to share their successes, but also share strategies for overcoming some of those barriers. I think that’s going to be an important part of the strategy for the next session,” Bisceglier says.
