Compass Group 360°

Dietitians in Training: Promoting School Nutrition Far and Wide

Making sure the nation’s school children are served healthful, safe, delicious meals is a big job – and the Chartwells registered dietitians (RDs) are up to the challenge. Chartwells School Dining Services employs over twenty RDs nation-wide to plan healthy meals, promote wellness and sustainability programs, and educate our school communities about healthy eating and active living. But with over 530 districts serving 2.5 million students, even an RD with super human powers would be hard-pressed to reach every student. Luckily, starting this January, Chartwells is getting help from a bright, motivated group of dietitians in training.

Let’s back up a second though. What exactly is a registered dietitian, and what makes them so well-qualified to support school nutrition? Registered dietitians are nutrition professionals who have completed an accredited undergraduate program in nutrition, completed a hands-on internship (usually lasting about a year), and passed a national exam to become officially “registered” as dietitians. This year, Chartwells and Morrison have started our own internship to provide more nutrition graduates the opportunity to become registered dietitians. Our interns come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, and are spread across the country from California to Connecticut. 

While we help our interns become experts in the field of nutrition, they will be in our schools teaching nutrition to students, parents and staff, seeking out healthy new recipes and foods to try on our menus, and engaging the school community in a variety of new, innovative food and nutrition projects.

We are so excited to welcome our interns into our districts, and see this as a great opportunity to reach more members of the school communities in which we serve. Expect to see updates from time to time on the wonderful work our interns are doing. If you’d like to learn more about registered dietitians, check out www.eatright.org. And, if you’re interested in reading more about the Morrison/Chartwells internship, visit the program’s website at www.rdinternship.com.

~ by Whitney Bateson RD, Director of Wellness Initiatives, Chartwells School Dining Services

 

MyPlate in Action

Since the release of MyPlate and our signing on as National Strategic Partners in CNPP’s Nutrition Communicators Network, the messages of MyPlate and the Dietary Guidelines have become part of many great events in our accounts. The first key message, “Make half your plate fruits and vegetables,” was a natural fit for our Eat Local campaign that kicked off for the season in September. With all of the fresh local produce we have seen a lot of plates half full with fruits and vegetables!

The Morrison team at Staten Island University Hospital held a farmers market to complement the hospital’s wellness fair. Chefs Brian Duhart and Peter Sarubbi conducted food demonstrations and tastings featuring the fresh produce that was available to employees through the onsite farmers market.

In Albion, NY the Morrison team at the Villages of Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Center hosted a reunion for former residents that included discussions of how to put the messages of the Dietary Guidelines and MyPlate into practice. Healthy snacks and produce from a local farm were served and provided as part of door prize baskets.

If you are looking for ways to put MyPlate, and specifically the “Make half your plate fruits and vegetables” message into action, check out the Fruit and Veggies Video Challenge. The entries have great ideas and you can vote for your favorite. Voting ends December 12^th, so don’t delay!

Behind the Scenes: GS1 US

I’m part of an initiative in the foodservice industry to make the food supply chain easier, transparent and safer for everyone involved, beginning at the farm and ending with our customers.

The Foodservice GS1 US Standards Initiative (“GS1 US”) is dedicated to the adoption and implementation of standards-based, global supply-chain solutions.

Launched in late 2009 in partnership with the International Foodservice Distributors Association (IFDA), the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association (IFMA) and the National Restaurant Association, we became part of a voluntary industry collaboration to adopt GS1 standards by 2015. Over seventy foodservice manufacturers, distributors and operators, including Compass Group, are members.

Instead of over 6,000 internal codes to track, we may be able to have one single code to share product information globally. Just like a barcode you see on your box of cereals at the supermarket, our industry will eventually have a similar tracking system.

Adding to the complexity is the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), menu-labeling legislation signed into law January 2011—plus a growing consumer demand for more and better nutritional and allergen product information—underscores the need for a standards-based system for accurate and timely product information.

By having one standard code allotted to each particular food item, all of the players in the food supply chain can do the following better and safer.

We are proud to be a part of the GS1 initiative because it’s important to our business on so many levels:

QUALITY ASSURANCE • Better ingredient traceability, from the operator all the way back to the distributor, manufacturer, processing plants and ultimately, the farm, which is important from a food safety standpoint

PURCHASING • Drives waste out of the foodservice supply chain and simplifies the procurement of quality products across our business

CUSTOMERS • Give us the ability to insure accuracy in providing our customers with information about the menu items they purchase through easier access to nutrition information, component ingredients and eventually allergen information

Eventually, GS1 will provide easy electronic access to shared data for all supply chain partners; allow for real-time data for better inventory control and warehouse management; and more efficient handling of purchasing and other transactions.

Webtrition is a direct beneficiary of our involvement. Developed by our healthcare sector and available cross-sector, Webtrition provides accurate nutritional analysis in accordance with current legal regulations. It also reduces waste through forecasting & proper portioning. The GS1 initiative will make it easier for registered dietitians and accounts to track this information if there is one standard code for each item in the database.

Recently GS1 US celebrated their two-year anniversary. At this time, we’re at the halfway point of our goal to have 75-percent voluntary adoption of GS1 standards by 2015.

If you’re interested in this topic, visit http://www.gs1us.org/sectors/foodservice

~Deanne Brandstetter, M.B.A., R.D., C.D.N., Vice President of Nutrition & Wellness Compass Group North America

What’s on our RDs' plates?

From the time I started working in food service with Flik Independent School Dining, people have been asking me, “Do you have to eat the food?” My answer was then, and still is now that I work with a variety of our operating sectors, “I don’t have to, I get to.”

Like a lot of people, my early experiences with “cafeteria food” weren’t always good. My most memorable lunch from high school was a cinnamon bun and a can of iced tea. If only my adult Registered Dietitian (RD) self could go back and shake the high school version of me. Luckily, things have changed – a lot – since then. Now schools have amazing things like salad bars, yogurt parfaits, made to order deli stations and even sushi! Workplace cafes are also serving amazing food that is often better than the local restaurants. So, when I am lucky enough to be in one of our accounts at lunch or even breakfast time, I don’t have to eat the food, I get to.

The next question becomes, “What do you eat?” Not unlike a lot of RDs, what I eat usually looks a lot like what MyPlate recommends. Take my recent visit to a New York City café run by Restaurant Associates. They were running a special station that featured all items made with apples, so my lunch included Apple Carrot Slaw, Sautéed Chicken Breast with Apple Cider Sauce and Beluga Lentil Almond Salad. Delicious and right in line with the MyPlate proportions.

Of course, I am not the only RD who gets to eat delicious meals in our cafes. In fact, there are about 1,400 of us! Starting with this post, we will be sharing pictures of “What’s on our RDs' plates?” every week on our Balance – it takes you Facebook page. If you are looking for healthy, delicious meal ideas, check them out!

~Jennifer M. Ignacio, MS, RD
Nutrition Communications Manager

 

105 Keeping You Alive

 

This past Friday, I had the honor of participating in a panel discussion on health for the 105 Voices of History Student Leadership Summit on behalf of Thompson Hospitality. The leadership summit was unique in that it was developed for students, by students. A select group of student leaders worked for the past year to identify a program that would support the needs of students who attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Included in the program were sessions on leadership, diversity, financial literacy, entrepreneurship and the session I was part of on health empowerment titled “105 Keeping You Alive.”

With many of the top chronic diseases disproportionately impacting minority communities, the inclusion of a session on health as well as a coordinated health walk were very suitable parts of the summit’s mission to develop the whole student. My portion of the discussion involved strategies to separate food from the process of coping with the stress and sleep deprivation that many college students face. By reducing distractions at meal times and stopping to consider why we are eating, we can help to reconnect with our hunger cues and better balance the way we eat with our actual needs. Utilizing non-food strategies for coping with stress including those identified by students such as religious and spiritual support and exercise are good ways to redirect from opportunities for mindless eating.  Fellow panelists included other Registered Dietitians who discussed eating issues faced by college students, a student led discussion on healthy relationships and a physician overview of sexual health. Despite the fact that the students were in the midst of an intensive and at times, exhausting rehearsal and activity schedule, they were very engaged and had thought provoking questions and stories to share. One in particular highlights how today’s students are facing health challenges not seen by generations before– a 20 year old student who is already taking medication to control her high blood pressure. Workshops like this one that aim to increase awareness of the links between food, fitness and health are crucial to reversing the current health trends.

Thompson Hospitality, which provides food services to 21 HBCUs, extended its support of the Leadership Summit and National Concert Choir by also participating in the entrepreneurship panel with Benita Thompson-Byas and Fred Thompson as participants.

~Jennifer M. Ignacio, MS, RD
Nutrition Communications Manager, Compass Group North America