As the new school year gets underway, you’re very likely reuniting with a lot of familiar faces—and maybe even meeting a few new ones. Summer break was nice, but now you’re back to work and collaborating with your team to do what you love. This sense of community is what makes you stronger in the workplace, gives you your best ideas, empowers you to serve students better and ultimately makes your job more rewarding. But building community—and using your community to the greatest advantage—isn’t always an easy thing to do. That’s why we’re exploring the whys and hows of community this month. You’ll find this valuable insight in our September/October issue highlighting these topics:
The Power of Community: Community can be difficult to describe succinctly, but at their core, all ideas about community focus on people coming together—and that’s exactly why community is important. It gives us support, accountability, identity and resilience, all of which we need to survive and thrive. Take a chance to explore exactly why community matters so much and how you can go about building it, even when it doesn’t feel easy. Once you start to build a stronger community, you’ll wonder how you ever survived without it.
It Takes a Village to Create a Menu: There are a lot of people you have to please when you’re creating your menu, and chief among them are students and parents. Prince William County Schools has taken a hands-on approach by directly soliciting input, listening to feedback and strategically creating varied menus that taste great, meet nutritional standards and feel culturally relevant and exciting. Sometimes that requires outside-the-box thinking, and Director of Food and Nutrition Andrea Early is sharing what she’s found works for her and her team.
School Meals That Connect Us: Prince William County Schools isn’t the only district that knows how to use community to create stand-out menus—teams across the country are doing the same thing, and they have tips to share. Hear some of the more creative suggestions that directors have for giving students a say in what they want to eat every day and how you can take practical steps to encourage them to engage (and their parents, too).
Food Focus: Fusion Frenzy!: Who says great food has to be one thing or another? Fusion food puts creative spins on dishes from all over the world, by combining cultural favorites or using specific flavors for a creative spin. Learn how fusion foods can get picky eaters to be more adventurous, make all students feel welcome in the classroom and ensure your menu is never boring.
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