A Day in the Life of a Nutrition Service Director

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                The goal of this article was to illustrate the common daily duties associated with being a Nutrition Service Director in school food service. The tasks performed in the article were actually taken from the day planner notebook of a Nutrition Service Director attempting to manage issues that arise in the line of work.

                For this Director, the day starts very early in the morning before any other staff arrive to prepare coffee to ensure staff satisfaction. Being the first individual in has its perks-- in this case, discovering a broken water main and contacting the correct personal to repair damages and find substitutes for last minute call offs. The day continues into answering voicemails about the daily menus to concerned parents and elaborating on the nutritional value of the foods included. With little to no rest following comes correcting a food ingredient being used in recipes, meeting with sales teams offering new products, mingling with students to get input on the final product, and attending meetings to ensure proper safety measures. The days may be long, challenging, and diverse; but the article concludes with the thought of it being a very rewarding career for those Dietitians who are interested in a management position.

                I found this article very intriguing and I think that it demonstrates how sometimes the worst incidents can happen at the most incredibly inopportune times. As future Dietitians, it is extremely important for us to keep our composure while dealing with problems (not only in food service, but all areas of practice) to ensure high quality job performance and outcomes.

References:

Spinks, B. (2010). A day in the life of a nutrition services director. Food Management, 45(5), 10-10.

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=cfb3ea42-d76f-4e06-b63c-3e0415cec0cf%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=104


-LL

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