Holiday Inn, Manitowoc, WI
March 26th-27th

Spring Into Action With School Breakfast was the theme for this year’s SNA-WI Spring Conference held in Manitowoc, WI on March 26th and 27th. The conference started off with a representative from Senator Kohl’s office thanking everyone in the audience for the extraordinary work they do in school nutrition.

Katie Wilson, president of the School Nutrition Association gave a presentation challenging all of us to do better and more for all the children attending Wisconsin schools. The interactive presentation gave attendees the chance to do some group activities including developing responses for some commonly heard barriers for not offering school breakfast programs. Everyone enjoyed the activity and commented on the usefulness of hearing the responses they could use in their schools when confronted with road blocks to implementing or improving a breakfast program.

Lastly, Katie shared some tips and examples of what schools in and out of Wisconsin are doing to increase breakfast participation.

The vendor table top session was well attended and a variety of items were showcased.

The focus of the following day was the various educational sessions in which representatives from different schools across the state shared their school breakfast program experiences. The first session focused on the financials of operating a successful program while the second session of the morning had school nutrition professionals share their breakfast program success with people in attendance.

The networking activity in which attendees chose a topic to learn more about gave them the opportunity to work in small groups and ask questions about a specific topic.

The afternoon sessions included learning more about the state wide breakfast challenge in which schools are challenged to increase student participation in the breakfast program. The last panel discussion allowed attendees the opportunity to learn more about the benefits and the power of partnerships. A school principal was among the panel members who urged everyone to seek the support of school administrators for their own breakfast program.

Approximately 120 people attended representing 64 different Wisconsin school districts.

The conference was organized by staff from four different organizations: the University of Wisconsin-Extension, the Department of Public Instruction, the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board and the School Nutrition Association of Wisconsin. A great partnership!