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Massachusetts Districts of Excellence
Hamilton-Wenham Regional
Manchester-Essex Regional
North Attleboro
Randolph
Catherine Donovan, Public Relations Chair, SNA of
Massachusetts
Food Service Directors, managers and employees need
professional development in order for them to keep up with
the changes and mandates of the child nutrition world, just
as teachers and administrators need it to keep up with the
demands of MCAS and the changing world of education.
Food Service Directors and their programs now have an
assessment tool to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
Completing the Keys to Excellence assists districts in
determining where professional development is needed and it
also assists in highlighting how the food service team is an
integral part of the education team.
The assessment allows you to benchmark your school nutrition
program's quality. Once you've determined your strong and
weak points, you can develop a plan to strengthen your
program. Doing so demonstrates your child nutrition
program's commitment to excellence and can win you respect
and recognition from your peers, employees and the school
community. Motivating these important stakeholders
strengthens your program's support network which can benefit
you in many ways. The Food Service Departments who work
towards this goal are the districts where the food service
department is not only a support department, but an integral
part of the school community; working with principals,
nurses and classroom teachers to support their efforts in
teaching lifelong healthy eating habits to our students.
Fifty-eight foodservice programs across the United States
(four here in Massachusetts) have been designated as a
District of Excellence by the School Nutrition Association.
A District of Excellence is a child nutrition program (or
district) that demonstrates its knowledge and fulfillment of
superior performance in providing nutritious food and a
healthy educational environment for all students. Districts
of Excellence in Child Nutrition embody "nutrition
integrity" throughout the school environment. They benchmark
their quality, demonstrate and validate commitment to
excellence and win respect from others in the school
community.
This designation recognizes district food service programs
that have completed Keys to Excellence and scored 80 percent
or higher in all four "key" areas. The four “key” areas are
Administration, Communications and Marketing, Nutrition and
Nutrition Education and Operations. The district then
provided the Child Nutrition Foundation further
documentation highlighting the program's accomplishments.
The four Massachusetts districts that have achieved this
designation are Hamilton-Wenham Regional, Manchester-Essex
Regional, North Attleboro and Randolph.
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