MSNA Industry Conference highlights, legislative notes

MMSNA Industry Conference highlights, legislative notes

The Minnesota School Nutrition Association’s annual Industry Conference at Ruttger’s Bay Lodge drew about 120 school foodservice directors and industry members for educational sessions, current events updates, and recreation. The event serves as an opportunity for school foodservice and industry professionals to improve communication and build relationships. The wide ranging seminars and presentations included:

• Following the MSNA’s slogan, “Hunger ends on our watch,” the organization is developing a step-by-step program, A World of Hope: One Potluck at a Time, that each school and its supporters can follow to raise money to combat hunger. The MSNA supports Kids Against Hunger and the Global Child Nutrition Foundation. (Mary Paula Deane, foodservice director for the Hastings School District, held the first potluck on May 31.)

• Lyn Halverson, director of Winona Schools, was presented with flowers at the conference for her Midwest Foodservice Manager of the Year award.

• Kate Larson presented “You a Year From Now,” encouraging attendees to explore their goals and plan steps to achieve them.

• Katie Wilson, the national SNA’s president elect and member of a national standards task force, presented some “hot topics” from the national front. This includes the 2009 emergency bill in the works that would adjust the whopping $2.47 (which includes food and labor) schools are reimbursed by the Federal government for each free and reduced-price school lunch. Because of food cost increases during that last two years, this could be welcome news.


Milk program, per-pupil spending increased

As the state legislative session lumbered indelicately to its end, few knew exactly what might wind up in the final budget agreement. While school funding has always been an issue, the last few years have been particularly challenging—every district in the state has had to do more with less, and foodservice was no exception. But some good news came out of the session: the state increased its contribution to the Kindergarten Milk Program to 20 cents per carton, which nearly covers the entire cost.

The Minnesota School Nutrition Association lobbied this year to get a funding increase for the Minnesota Kindergarten Milk Program, which, in theory, provides a carton of milk to kindergarten students each day.

The problem was, funding did not keep pace with the cost of milk. The state supplied 14 cents per carton, while the actual cost of the milk is about 21 cents per carton. The short change caused many districts to drop the program during the past years rather than absorb the extra cost or pass it onto families.
In addition to added funding for the milk program, the budget bill also increased by $51 per-pupil spending in the general education formula.