Cincinnati Schools Dining Services Director Wins Regional Award

(Arlington, VA - May 5, 2020) – The national, non-profit School Nutrition Association (SNA) has named Jessica Shelly, SNS, student dining services director for Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS), OH, the Mideast regional Director of the Year. The award recognizes the extraordinary contributions of school nutrition directors who manage effective school meal programs providing healthy, appetizing meals to students. While the nomination process began before widespread COVID-19 school closures, SNA also recognizes the expansive efforts of school nutrition directors to manage current emergency feeding programs, ensuring students continue to access healthy meals.

When Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued the stay-at-home order, Shelly and her team jumped into action immediately to ensure the 36,000 CPS students and their families have access to healthy meals. From March 17-April 24, CPS has served 140,000 healthy meals at 23 sites, three days a week, throughout the school.

Over the past decade, Shelly has dedicated her time and energy to improving the school meal programs throughout the city. She completely restructured the breakfast and lunch programs, increasing student participation and improving overall efficiency. Implementation of a new point-of-sale system, better accountability and record keeping helped turn a $2.4 million deficit into a surplus of $11.2 million in the past five years.

Shelly also secured more than $15 million in grant funding to replace cooking equipment as well as purchase micro-green growing units, reimbursable meal vending machines, salad bars, breakfast kiosks and school nutrition education materials.

To cut food waste, Shelly encourages students to “take what they want, but eat what they take” while empowering them to customize their meals. The implementation of new menus, spice stations, garden salad bars, build-your-own stations, world culture cuisine days, plant-based options, hydration stations and new marketing tools have increased participation in high schools from 48 percent to 79 percent. Student feedback has never been more positive, according to staff. Students and parents are encouraged to provide school meal feedback through student evaluation teams, pop-up menu tasting events and monthly surveys posted on the online menu system.

Shelly recognizes that positive employee experiences translate into an effective and efficient workplace. She ensures her staff is motivated and encouraged through constant communication and recognition of a job well done. Throughout the year, she awards school teams with the Golden Ladle and Silver Spoodle. Weekly, she sends emails that highlight creative employee ideas and initiatives along with interesting facts about each employee. In an effort to share ideas and create a sense of community, she also offers a Manager Exchange Program for managers to shadow their colleagues.

She engages the whole community by hosting special events like Chef for a Day, where principals, administrators and board members help prepare, serve and clean up lunch service. Mentoring Meals Monday welcomes school employees to dine with students and Meals with Shields opens the door for first responders to enjoy lunch with students.

Shelly also coordinates several Student Dining Showcase events where menu items are sampled before public Board of Education meetings. She works with local farmers and hunger coalition groups and has developed food pantries at five high schools. She also partnered with a local community college to help create a School Nutrition career track for culinary students, where she provides insight and student shadowing opportunities.

A strong supporter and advocate of SNA, Shelly has offered membership to all student dining service employees since 2012, including the superintendent and CEO. She also renegotiated the union contract to include a monetary stipend for student dining services employees who obtain their SNA Certification.

Over her 10 years as an SNA member, Shelly has held many leadership roles in school nutrition, both regionally and nationally. For Ohio School Nutrition Association, she has held the position of president, president elect, vice president and conference committee chair. As a member of national SNA, Shelly has volunteered on the Audit Committee, Executive Committee, Member Services Committee, was chair of the Young Professionals Task Force and a Mideast Regional Director. She has also been a member of the Delegate Assembly, Star Club, Spokesperson Network, National Committee Representative for the Governance Task Force and Ohio Representative for the School Nutrition Foundation Ambassadors.

“We’re proud to recognize Jessica as a Regional Director of the Year after watching her perform her job with such passion, creativity and commitment to her school and community,” said SNA President Gay Anderson, SNS. “The initiatives she has implemented in her schools have made a valuable positive impact for a successful school meal program.”

The regional Director of the Year Award was created to recognize school nutrition directors who exhibit an extraordinary commitment to their school meal programs. The directors are responsible for maintaining the quality of the program through student interaction, menu planning and a commitment to serving nutritious, tasty and well-balanced school meals. Through effective oversight of all aspects of foodservice operations, including budgeting, staffing, training, marketing and community outreach, school nutrition directors ensure the overall success of school meal programs.

About School Nutrition Association:

The School Nutrition Association (SNA) is a national, non-profit professional organization representing more than 55,000 school nutrition professionals across the country. Founded in 1946, SNA and its members are dedicated to making healthy school meals and nutrition education available to all students. For more information on school meals, visit www.SchoolNutrition.org/SchoolMeals.