Big ideas, local implementation

The MSNA Industry Conference, with its varied presentations, tackled large issues by showing how easy it can be to implement them at a local level.

“Opportunity! Innovate! Or Stagnate!” That was the progressive theme at the annual Minnesota School Nutrition Association Industry Conference at Ruttger’s Bay Lodge in Deerwood, Minn., on May 4-5. The conference traditionally has been an ideas- and discussion-based gathering for school foodservice professionals and vendors, a “no sale” zone that serves to improve relationships to better serve, ultimately, the “clients” of those schools—the students.

The conference began with the return of humorist and psychologist Bruce Christopher, who delivered his own “Innovate or Stagnate” address, which focused on how individuals can learn to “ride the waves of change, instead of being overwhelmed by them.” The session dovetailed easily into the afternoon seminars: “Social Media: Adapt or Die,” and “Going Green is Easy: Saving Costs and educating Students on Environmental Stewardship.”

The two-day event was highlighted by a presentation by Will Steger, the renowned polar explorer and environmental educator.


Social media in school foodservice?

Does a school’s foodservice department really need to worry about engaging in social media? Maybe not “worry,” but it’s something that should be engaged. Such was the argument made by Jared Roy, president of Risdall Integration Group, an advertising agency specializing in navigating the increasingly crowded media landscape for its clients.

Social media, Roy said, is more than just Twitter and Facebook. The landscape includes blogs, RSS (real simple syndication) feeds, multi-media sharing sites like Flickr and YouTube, and wikis (Wikipedia being the most famous). The important thing, he stressed, is not to be overwhelmed with making full use of Facebook, Twitter or other social media. The first step is to set up accounts, which take minutes, and start listening to what’s being said about you, your business or program. “Those conversations are happening whether you are there or not,” Roy said.

And social media is not just a young person’s game, Roy said. Twitter’s greatest growth demographic, for example, is among 25 to 49 year-olds. Further, while Roy spoke about social media in marketing terms—notably that “push marketing needs to be replaced by engagement marketing” (social media users generally don’t like to be “sold” to), that message could easily be translated into a customer service/promotional context for schools, by engaging the community to address concerns and questions, and to promote good programs already in place.

Roy explained other aspects of social media, including user groups and company/organization pages within LinkedIn and Facebook that might also be useful communication tools.


Budget strapped? Go green.

Cara Rieckenberg, the environmental coordinator for the Prior Lake-Savage School District, and Kris Diller, child nutrition supervisor for Orono schools, spoke about the measures they implemented to reduce garbage produced from the districts’ foodservice programs, largely by recycling organic food waste and switching to packaging that can join the food waste in the compost heap.

Rieckenberg revealed many specific challenges in her efforts, including some hard numbers on the savings from the 2006-’07 school year to 2008-’09. Among the initial challenges was a lack of funding—not only standard budget issues, but also a lack of grant money available for recycling programs throughout the county. “So, we went to the Scott County (Board) with a proposal,” Rieckenberg said, and eventually was awarded a $10,000 grant.

Using that money, plus a second $1,764 grant from the DSC Jeffers Foundation, the district built organic waste containers, steel sorting tables and purchased other necessary equipment and services. The program, run during only part of the 2006-’07 school year, saved the school about $4,000.

The following year saw more grant money and double the number of participating schools (eight), but only ran the final 16 weeks of the school year. Still, with the reduction in the number of dumpster pickups because of reduced organic food waste and recyclables, the district saved $16,469, among other savings.

The program, according to Rieckenberg’s data, was self-sufficient in 2008-’09—they received no grant money. The program ran for 35 weeks at eight schools, cost $10,717 to operate (including the cost of a driver to haul the barrels of organic material and the wear and tear on the truck), and produced a savings of $22,470, primarily because of number of trash pickups required was reduced, and $4,725 in savings because organic waste is not stuck with the $42 per-ton fee assessed to regular trash for being hauled to the dump.

In total, there was 112.5 tons of food waste diverted from landfills during the year. Rieckenberg projected that 156 tons would be diverted during the 2009-’10 school year.

Diller also dove into the specifics of her program (many of the details can be read in the March 2010 issue of Foodservice News, or at our Web site: http://www.foodservicenews.net/fsnarchives2010/ed-school-March10.html). But she also offered several tips for getting started, from evaluating your current foodservice program and assembling an accessible “sorting table” for students to properly dispose their waste, to establishing “key players”—administration officials and principals—to support the program and reach teachers.


Steger keynote address

The Tuesday highlight was a presentation by Will Steger, polar explorer and environmental steward. Steger, with his multimedia presentation, cut through the politics to talk facts about climate change: he’s witnessed it firsthand for more than 30 years during his polar explorations. “I talked about global warming in the late 1960s to eighth-grade classrooms, back when we thought it (the effects) were generations away,” he said.

Steger re-released his book, “Crossing Antarctica,” this year—its 20th anniversary—which highlights his international expedition to the planet’s southern-most continent. Steger showed many images from the trek and compared them with realities today. One example was of a massive glacier pathway the group traveled to enter the continent in late 1989 that simply no longer exists, having been broken up by the warming atmosphere and ocean temperatures. Steger also compared his treks to the Arctic regions over the years. Included in his presentation was a recent photograph of him paddling a canoe in the Arctic Ocean. “Twenty or 30 years ago, I didn’t think this was possible,” Steger said. “Expeditions to the North Pole now require flotation devices.”

During his 2008 Kite-Ski expedition in Greenland, Steger said they repeatedly ran into running water on that country’s ice cap. “This is the start of a great sea rise, and it’s something that will plague our civilization from here on out,” he said, adding that in 2007, 50 percent of the permanent Arctic Sea ice was lost, an amount equal to the U.S. land mass west of the Mississippi River. “We have a very short period in which to act (to change)—10 years.”

Steger’s presentation was not themed in doom and gloom, however. He also spoke about his background—his desire to explore struck early—as a teenager he hiked and rafted across western America with his brothers. He spoke about his Foundation and its educational and outreach programs, his home in Ely, Minn., where he has lived since 1970, and the dogs that eagerly haul his expeditions through the bitter conditions, and his testimony before the U.S. Congress on climate change. However, his message, ultimately, was a simple one. “Within our personal lives, any time we buy something or flick a switch, it’s a decision,” he said, adding that the proposed climate legislation that would also spur development of renewable energy sources is absolutely necessary. “It comes down to jobs. …Think of the paradigm where we could go (with that), rather than being defeatist.”

For more information on Will Steger and the Will Steger foundation, visit www.willsteger.com and www.willstegerfoundation.org.

—Mike Mitchelson