MSNA conference: education,
accomplishments at forefront

The Minnesota School Nutrition Association’s annual conference in St. Cloud, Minn., was yet another example of the growing activity and influence of the state’s school foodservice operations. More than 900 people attended the conference to soak in educational seminars, trade show and some good fun.

“Lunch ladies and lunch lady-men set that bar when it comes to caring about hungry kids in schools and communities,” said Tom Pellegrino, MSNA president, in his opening remarks.

Pellegrino also went on to list the association’s accomplishments during the past year, including nutrition and educational conferences, the association’s strategic plan efforts with the tagline “Hunger ends on our watch,” and the nuts-and-bolts highlights of association infrastructure and leadership improvements.

Networking and social opportunities abounded in the evening as per tradition, linked to a good cause, such as the Kids Against Hunger food packaging session. Also at the conference, the new MSNA president, St. Paul School District’s Director of Nutrition Services Jean Ronnei, was sworn in, more than $3,000 was raised through silent and live auctions for the scholarship program, and, at the Red Cross booth, attendees donated 34 pints of blood.

The 2009 conference is set for August 2 to 5 in Duluth, Minn.


Highlights

Keeping perspective

Keynote speaker Nick Mezacapa, an ordained Episcopal priest, gave a very frank and often hilarious presentation titled “Living Life to the Fullest: Keeping it all in Perspective.” The former teacher and athletics coach turned priest talked about his life and the counsel he gives others, and the struggles to keep balance in one’s life between meaningless workplace meetings and personal time.

“You’ve gotta have a scheme for yourself,” he said. “Never have I heard someone on their deathbed say, ‘I wish I bought one more BMW.”

Engagement at work

Jack Mattefy of Mattefy & Company presented a workshop titled “What Are You Passionate About?: Being Engaged at the Workplace.”

The core of the seminar centered around data from a Gallup poll which revealed that only 27 percent of American workers are engaged with their work, 59 percent work only for a paycheck but are not engaged at their jobs, with the remaining 13 percent actively disengaged and share their discontent.

Mattefy encouraged audience participation to define what engagement means for individuals, but also provided a general description: “Engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward.” Mattefy also reminded the crowd that “proficiency doesn’t necessarily mean engagement.”

The seminar ended with five points to increase one’s engagement level at work:

• Determine where you stand by looking at the description of an engaged person. Does that describe you?

• Assess what makes you thrilled about work. What are those passions?

• Be candid and willing to move ahead and/or move on.

• Take control of your engagement and career.

• Keep your life balanced. If your life revolves around work and something goes wrong on the job, you’ll feel as if your whole life is falling apart.

Special needs diets

Not only does a school foodservice program have to serve hundreds—and often thousands of meals per day, but also handle the special-needs requirements of students with specific dietary needs. The session titled “Special Diets in Schools” detailed various special-needs diets, including food allergies, diabetes, phenylketonuria (PKU) and Celiac disease; and students with disabilities that might require tube or intravenous feeding, among other possibilities. Also discussed were Federal and state regulations.