October 28, 2011 – Julia Bauscher, SNS, Director of School and Community Nutrition Services, Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville, Ky., has been named the 2012 Golden School Foodservice Director of the Year in the annual FAME (Foodservice Achievement Management Excellence) Awards competition. The FAME Awards have been honoring innovative school nutrition professionals and allies for the last 23 years.
The Golden School Foodservice Director demonstrates outstanding achievement in leadership, spirit/dedication, innovation, career awards, management systems, humanitarianism/community involvement and bettering the lives of students.
A this year’s Golden School Foodservice Director of the Year winner, Bauscher has nearly 20 years of experience and innovation in the Jefferson County district, starting as coordinator of food procurement, before becoming manager of the district’s new central kitchen and finally taking the position of program director in 2009. Examples of Bauscher’s creative and forward-thinking leadership range from renting an area expo center to coordinate a full-fledge training and development conference for her staff to processing fresh local produce when it is in season for use throughout the year to partnering with local chefs and culinary schools. This year, more than half of the district’s 144 school sites were recognized with designations in the HealthierUS School Challenge program. Bauscher also has served as president of the Kentucky School Nutrition Association and as Nutrition Committee chair on the SNA Board of Directors.
Five other school nutrition professionals were lauded by the FAME selection panel that included winners of the 2011 competition, as well as the editors of School Nutrition magazine and other trade publications and SNA President Helen Phillips, SNS.
Linda Stoll, MPH, Executive Director of Food Services, Jefferson County School District, Golden, Colo., was named as winner of the Silver Leadership Award, which recognizes a director who demonstrates outstanding leadership, dedication, fiscal achievement and innovation in menuing/merchandising.
The Silver Spirit Award is given to a person in a management position who shows commitment to the people and programs of child nutrition and distinguishes her/himself through innovative programs, marketing, training, customer service, and/or staff motivation; this year’s winner is Craig Weidel, Area Supervisor, Mesa (Ariz.) Public Schools.
The Silver Rising Star Award recognizes and encourages the next generation, honoring a director with three or fewer years’ experience. Jessica Shelly, Foodservices Director, Cincinnati Public Schools receives this year’s award.
FAME’s Silver Special Achievement Award, bestowed on a director who shows innovation in districts with 10,000 or less student enrollment, went this year Jane Johnson, School Nutrition Director, Crane School District #13, in Yuma, Ariz.
The Silver Friend of Child Nutrition Award, which recognizes an outstanding supporter or advocate of school nutrition programs, was awarded to Dayle Hayes, MS, RD, President of Nutrition for the Future, Inc., in Billings, Mont.
In addition, the second honoree of the Gertrude Applebaum Lifetime Achievement Award, selected exclusively by the FAME sponsors, is Shirley R. Watkins, President of SR Watkins & Associates, LLC, Silver Spring, Md. Watkins is a past president of SNA and a former Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services at USDA.
The 2012 FAME Awards are made possible with the generous support of Basic American Foods, Schwan’s Food Services, Inc., and Tyson Foods, Inc. The awards will be presented Sunday, January 15, 2012, at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, in conjunction with SNA’s Child Nutrition Industry Conference in Orlando, Fla.
CNIC 2012FAME (www.fameawards.net)