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School lunch makeover

In January the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the final meal pattern regulations for school meals, as mandated by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Kevin Concannon, USDA under secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, called the annou

Operations

Schools find prepackaged meals add to breakfast success

Prepackaged meals are key to breakfast success, according to the 2012 Survey of School Breakfast Programs conducted by the got breakfast Foundation.

Much was said at MenuDirections about spices jazzing up a dish. The same can be said for conferences, as this sampler of flavorful quotes attests. Here they are, delivered without any adulteration.

MenuDirections abounded in ideas, some so self-contained that it’s difficult to lump them into categories or one of our larger themed stories from the conference (which you’ll find here.) Here, then, is a mixed assortment of those notions and insights.

After five days on the road, I’m back in our New York office, collecting my thoughts in the aftermath of what might have been our best MenuDirections conference ever.

No longer a MenuDirections newbie, I was able to work the comprehensive education program more aggressively today, jumping from chef demos to flavor forecasts while sampling recipes developed with both health and flavor in mind.

One day into the Menu Directions conference here in Charleston, S.C., I’ve stumbled across some truths that surprised this first-time attendee of the meeting, an immersion in America’s foodservice preferences.

Well, the first day of MenuDirections 2012, in Charleston, S.C., is in the book, and it went off without a hitch. From a lunch with foods prepared by nearly 20 sponsors to a Dine-Around at three of Charleston’s best-known restaurants, our 150 operator attendees were treated to one culinary delight after another.

Beckee Moreland, director of gluten-free industry initiatives for the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, spoke to FSD about the company’s GREAT Kitchens programs, which educates operators...

“We’re already there” is the most common reaction when talking to school nutrition operators about the new meal pattern regulations.  “Most of what is [in the new meal regs] we’re already doing,” says David Binkle,

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