FUN ENGAGEMENT In several ways a simple box was the vehicle for some of the most engaging and fun programs this year. We conducted a Mystery Box Challenge where 10 different districts were presented with a box of ingredients and asked to submit their own recipes with the mystery box of ingredients presented to them. This proved to be a great way to see how imaginative food service staff can be. Jess Stone and her team at Woodridge Local Schools were the competition winners with a veggie meatball and spicy pasta sauce recipe. They even took the challenge further and engaged with staff and students to taste the recipe and submitted a video of their feedback.
children creating each recipe. We found these chefs-in- the-making to be adorable and heartwarming.
Try Days are also always a fun way to engage with students. Our partner school districts conducted many try days with items like local watermelon radish and homemade pizza made with a locally made pizza dough.
GLOWING ARs Districts should never fear an impending administrative review from the state agency. It should be an opportunity to showcase and celebrate your program and staff’s dedication to child nutrition. Congratulations to all of the districts in our Pisanick family (Copley, Garfield, Jackson Local, Plain Local, Maple Heights, and Scioto Valley) that had an AR this year! You are the pioneers of “business as usual” after the pandemic. You showed that you can comply with the USDA guidelines and feed students nutritious meals. A special shout-out to our new schools (St. Columbkille and St. Albert the Great) that joined the NSLP this year and had great AR’s as well!
The excitement and creativity was shown in every entry presented. There were videos of recipes put to music, involvement by entire kitchen teams, step by step recipe instructions provided, taste testing by students and staff and even some theatrical presentations. Look out Food Network! The presentations were first class and it was great to see.The judges had such a hard time picking just one winner. When all was said and done everyone was a winner so superlative awards were given to all. The submitted entrees were made into a cookbook and then modified to be turned into school compliant recipes.
Successes can be big or small and can be attention getting or go relatively unnoticed, however it really is the daily hard work of all of our partners and their dedication to their programs that is the best measure of success.
A box, filled with ingredients to make a recipe, was also used to provide family engagement with our partners at Lorain
Meet the Pisanick Partners leadership team
County Head Start. They provided families with a box of ingredients to make a recipe. Participants watched
(From left to right) Marge Robison, MPH, RDN-LDN; Sarah Carlson, MS, RD-LD; David Pisanick, Co-Founder, CFO; Maureen Pisanick, RDN- LDN Founder,
the program’s chef and one of our dietitians create the recipe and provide nutrition education about the recipe. Families loved this program and one family that participated was so inspired that they started to turn the program into their own Tik Tok videos of the
CEO; Tina Hastings, Operations Specialist; Gina Nash, Operations Specialist (not pictured)
Pisanick Partners is a nutrition and operations based consulting firm with decades of experience in Child Nutrition. We have refined our approach through creation of cycle menus, training and development of staff, and implementing strategies that take on the task of not only attaining nutritional excellence, but also financial success in the K-12 environment. Our experience not only supports a school district in meeting all state and federal mandates for implementing the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, but also the menu creation with an eye for detail and meticulous organization. The objective is to quickly and accurately evaluate, analyze and organize a district’s nutritional program to insure compliance and easy on-going maintenance.
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