As the largest federal conference aimed at improving the quality and taste of school meals, the Healthy Meals Incentive (HMI) Summit was attended this past fall by hundreds of school nutrition professionals from across the U.S. The Kansas contingent included food service staff members from two school districts.

Kelly Chanay, director of Kansas State Department of Education’s Child Nutrition and Wellness (CNW) program, said the Wamego and Coffeyville districts were chosen by the CNW staff to attend the USDA-sponsored HMI convention based on their efforts to make as many of their menu items from scratch with ingredients that are locally sourced.  

“They are examples for the whole state of quality school nutrition programs,” Chanay said. "They are just very passionate about feeding kids healthy, fresh foods that taste good. They’re also really doing a great job of educating parents and students and getting the word out about the meals they are serving.” 

Chanay said the Wamego district promotes their meals to their broader community with a strong social media presence. The Coffeyville district, she said, will soon start growing vegetables in a container that used to be a freight car.

Laura Fails, food service director at Wamego USD 320, said she learned a lot at the summit about small actions and activities she can implement in her district’s food service program that will have a large impact.

“(I learned) find your cheerleaders, like-minded staff both in and out of food service to help implement new ideas and projects,” she said.

Fails said a food service program for any district is vital to the learning process for all students.

“Research supports the fact that hungry kids are less likely to be successful in the classroom for many reasons,” she said. “Having access for meals at school increases attendance, improves test scores, results in less visits to the nurse’s office and decreases absenteeism.”

Those who attended the summit in Las Vegas, Nev., participated in hands-on workshops and interactive stations, heard about strategies for farm-to-school programming, nutrition education, taste tests, salad bars, and activities designed to engage students in school meal initiatives.

Dorothy Riley, on the Coffeyville USD 445 food service staff, said she was “both shocked and honored to be chosen” to attend the HMI summit.

“We’ve worked so hard on scratch cooking, and there were moments when both teams got discouraged. But in the end, all that effort paid off,” she said. “A lot of the staff at the school were initially standoffish about the changes being made, and we felt the pressure from comments, even from the kids, about the food we were serving for the first time. Some of the kids even had to Google the meaning of dishes like 'kati kati chicken' because they had never seen them before. However, I learned that many districts are facing the same challenges we are, and it reminded me that we should never give up on initiatives that are for the greater good of the children.”

Riley said she believes a district food service program is “just as important as the curriculum because nutrition directly impacts students' ability to focus, learn and thrive.”

“Healthy, balanced meals provide the energy and mental clarity students need to perform well in their studies,” she said. “Additionally, food serves as an opportunity to teach students about nutrition, culture, and responsibility—key elements in their overall development.”

Click here for more information about USDA’s Healthy Meals Incentives for Schools program. For more information about the HMI Summits, click here.