Workshops for school foodservice professionals

Extension is expanding its online education and resources to adapt to COVID-19 restrictions.

We offer face-to-face training to school food service professionals including:

Increasing participation in school breakfast
Creating Smarter Lunchrooms in school cafeterias
Serving fruits and vegetables
Lowering sodium
Managing food allergens

Training sessions are two hours and provide school food service staff with 2 CEUs. The optimal group size for a training session is 20 to 25 participants.

For more information on training and cost

Contact Kelly Kunkel (kunke003@umn.edu; 507-389-6721)
Download the flyer: Workshops for School Foodservice Professionals (PDF).

Wake up to school breakfast

Two hours

Discuss the benefits of increasing school breakfast participation.
Learn different options for serving school breakfast.
Use marketing strategies to increase school breakfast participation.

Smarter Lunchrooms: Quick and easy ways to increase participation and reduce waste

Two hours

Learn about behavioral economics and its influence on choice.
Understand how “cold state” or rational decision-making and “hot state” or impulsive decision-making affects food choices.
Identify successful choice architecture strategies already happening in your lunchroom.
Develop an action plan to incorporate extra nudging strategies into your lunchroom.

A new look at fruits and vegetables in school cafeterias

Two hours

Understand the health justification for including a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in school menus.
Practice safe handling and creative preparation techniques to optimize quality, appeal, and nutritional benefits.
Learn cutting edge information from the field.
new food code
behavioral economics in the serving line
farm-to-school resources
Identify action steps and set goals to increase student consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Lose the sodium, add the flavor

Two hours

Better understand the health implications of consuming a high-sodium diet.
Learn how simple scratch cooking can reduce sodium in school meals.
Explore and practice culinary skills to reduce the sodium content of meals.
Practice identifying the amount of sodium in food.
Learn a variety of techniques for adding flavor to food.

Managing food allergens in school nutrition programs

Two hours

Learn about food allergies and their impact of school nutrition programs.
Practice reading food labels.
Develop an action plan for accommodating students with food allergies.
Identify ways to reduce risk and avoid cross contact.