Professional Development

Team Nutrition is introducing its first materials for summer meal sites! These new materials are designed to help families learn more about the importance of healthy eating and physical activity over the summer months, to raise awareness of the summer meal programs, and to make it easier for summer meal sites to offer enrichment activities.

The Take a Healthy Summer Break infographic and the This Summer, Eat Smart to Play Hard parent handout are colorful, parent-tested materials featuring practical tips to help families make small shifts that can lead to a healthier summer for the whole family.

The Summer Food, Summer Moves kit is also available for summer meal site operators and includes fun activities with positive nutrition messages along with kid-tested recipes that can be used in a variety of summer meal settings. The kit also includes posters, family handouts, flyers, and a placemat activity sheet. Learn more at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/summer-food-summer-moves

USDA Professional Standards Resources

USDA has released a booklet designed to help State agencies, school food authorities, and school nutrition professionals understand and apply the Final Rule on Professional Standards for School Nutrition Programs Personnel. See the guide and additional USDA resources here.

SNA's website offers a wealth of information on this topic, including latest news, tracking tools, training guides, FAQs and more. (Password may be required.)

MSDE Food and Nutrition YouTube Channel Playlist

Click here for the full list or click on any of the videos below to watch a specific training topic.

Within YouTube find the videos:

Search for MSDE-TV
Click "Playlists"
Click "Food & Nutrition"

Maryland Smart Snacks 9:48 minutes This 10-minute video is designed for parents, students, teachers, school administrators, school club advisors, and interested community members. Through interviews, narration, and helpful infographics, this video helps explain the Smart Snacks rules and highlights best practices for helping schools comply with the details of the rule. This is one part of the USDA School Nutritional Programs that is the responsibility of the entire school community, not just the Food and Nutritional Services department.		School Breakfast and Lunch - The Reimbursable Meal 10:58 minutes This video provides a summary of the USDA requirements for the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. Watch now for a clear, easy to understand explanation of the food group and nutrient requirements. Through interviews with Maryland School Nutrition Leaders and narration, viewers will also learn about the nutrition education and health benefits that come with participating in the School Nutrition Programs.
School Nutrition Training - Point of Service Duty 34:20 minutes This video is designed for School Nutrition Professionals, especially those serving food and conducting 'Point of Service' duties at the cash register. There are 22 minutes of content, followed by 12 minutes of practice that will allow viewers to test their understanding of what combination of foods and beverages fulfill the USDA requirements for a complete, reimbursable meal. We recommend viewing 'Meal Patterns for School Breakfast and Lunch prior to watching this video.		Writing Your Wellness Policy 27:54 minutes Time to write your wellness policy. Ensure your policy includes all required components and can easily be measured. Find out more details about how to integrate new requirements while creating a policy that works for your school community.
Getting Started - Wellness Policies (2016) 9:12 minutes Building a robust team of stakeholders is a critical step in the wellness policy process. This video identifies strategies for gaining participation and leadership in each step of wellness policy development, implementation and review. Interested in earning professional standard credits? Complete the pre(link) and post(link) assessment survey for this video and a certificate will be provided to you.		How to Write a Standardized Recipe 14:33 minutes Describes the step by step process for writing a standardized recipe using three examples. Viewers apply the skills they learned from the Maryland State Department of Education’s nutrition video, What is a Standardized Recipe? Viewers write a recipe for one serving and they learn how to scale up a recipe for multiple servings.

SNA's One-Stop Shop for On-Demand E-Learning

Visit SNA's new one-stop shop for on-demand e-learning, one-click webinar registration and just-released online training modules. Check out all the options for back-to-school training needs for you and your team! Learn More.

SNA's CERTIFICATE and CREDENTIAL Programs

The School Nutrition Association offers a certificate program and the SNS credential. Visit SNA's website to learn more about how you can earn a certificate or become credentialed:

For information about the SNA Certificate in School Nutrition, click here.
For SNS Credential information, click here.