On any given day, Carrie Woodruff’s office is full of a mix of dietetic interns, employees and supervisors from nearby districts. The room hums with questions—all directed at Carrie.
As the foodservice director for Lima City Schools in Lima, Ohio, Woodruff is excited to share the knowledge she’s gained through her 20 years of experience.
“My mom was a schoolteacher,” she says. “So I just have a passion for teaching and a passion for education.”
During her time with Lima City, Woodruff has taken the nutrition program’s financials out of the red, become one of the first to pilot programs such as breakfast in the classroom, and mentored the next generation of K-12 foodservice leaders.
Going from red to green
Before she found herself in K-12 foodservice, Woodruff was a dietetic supervisor and cafeteria manager at a local hospital in Lima. She went on to take a position as a business and dining manager for Ford’s Lima Engine Plant. It was there that she learned how to operate on a budget, a skill that proved essential when she became the nutrition director of Lima City Schools.
Once she arrived at the district, she learned that its nutrition program was $142,000 over budget. Woodruff immediately began implementing cost-saving strategies, such as placing condiments directly on plates instead of in separate prepackaged containers.
She was also tasked with starting a breakfast program. Lima’s breakfast service, available at two schools, evolved into one of the country’s first breakfast-in-the-classroom programs. Shortly after, the USDA approached her to pilot its Department of Defense fresh fruit and vegetable program, which allows schools to use USDA Foods entitlement dollars to buy fresh produce.
On mentoring
Woodruff credits her success to the mentors she found at her local school nutrition chapter.
“In Ohio, we have a school business association and child nutrition chapter, so that was my favorite meeting to go to. It was all of the older mentors who are now retiring. That was my go-to group,” she says, adding that she would also take road trips throughout the state to attend different chapter meetings and conferences. “If you just learned one thing, it was worth the drive.”
Today, Woodruff has taken the knowledge she has learned over her career and made it one of her goals to share it with others. She works with dietetic interns from her alma mater, Bluffton University in Bluffton, Ohio, showing them how she runs a successful K-12 nutrition program. She also helps lead monthly School Nutrition Association chapter meetings, made up of supervisors from local area schools.
And her office door is always open.
“That’s kind of where I’ve taken over and have tried to mentor to them my knowledge,” she says. “I have a computer right here in the office, so I can still do my job and then they can ask me questions on whatever. I really like doing that. People were there for me for mentoring and now I try to do that for others.”
Woodruff also makes sure that every member of her team has the opportunity to learn as much as they can. The entire nutrition staff, for example, has the opportunity to be paid an extra 3% of their salary if they become ServSafe certified.
“You don’t get where you’re at by yourself,” she says. “I truly try to have my people know as much as I know, so that when I’m gone they can run with the district. That’s one thing that’s really important, is them knowing what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.”
What's in store for K-12 and Lima City foodservice
When talking about the future of K-12 foodservice, Woodruff says it’s hard to know what’s up and coming. There’s too much uncertainty around USDA regulations.
“There is just so much going on in nutrition and it’s driven by USDA. It’s always like, ‘What are they going to put in there that is going to stump you or make it easier?’” she says. “I’m hoping that they’re going to make it easier. They just keep changing the rules.”
The future of the nutrition program of Lima City Schools is a little clearer.
Woodruff is continuing to work on providing additional local produce for students. And she would love to expand the district’s farm-to-school program, including building a hoop house.
Woodruff’s plan going forward is to stay ahead while doing what’s best for Lima City students.
“I’m proactive instead of reactive,” she says. “I like to be ahead of the game.”