Senator Luther Olsen Recognized

During the Wisconsin School Nutrition Association’s Annual Conference, Senator Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) was presented with the “Legislator of the Year” award. This award recognizes Senator Olsen’s work on Assembly Bill 37 (AB), which was signed into law on July 1^st, 2015 and it is now known as 2015 Wisconsin Act 46.

“I am honored to receive this award from the School Nutrition Association for my work on AB 37, which will help reduce the threat of foodborne illnesses to our children,” said Senator Olsen. “I believe it is important to educate food service administrators on the dangers of incorrect food preparation and to help ensure there are food safety practices in lunchrooms in order to better protect the health and wellbeing of Wisconsin students.”

Every day in Wisconsin, there are nearly 720,000 meals that are served to students across the state, which means there are approximately 125 million meals that are served each year. Wisconsin Act 46 brings school lunchrooms in line with other food service operations, and an operator or manager of a school lunchroom in the National School Lunch Program will need to have a food protection practices certificate from the Department of Health Services.

“The School Nutrition Association of WI applauds Sen. Luther Olsen for his work to improve child nutrition programs in Wisconsin, and his designation as the 2016 SNA-WI Legislator of the Year is just a small token of our appreciation,” said Barb Waara, SNA-WI president. “His efforts will help strengthen school nutrition and ensure Wisconsin students have access to healthy meals to fuel their academic school day.”

The School Nutrition Association (SNA) is a nonprofit organization that represents more than 56,000 members nationwide. The mission statement of the association notes that “SNA is the national organization of school nutrition professionals committed to advancing the quality of school meal programs through education and advocacy.”

Pictured with Senator Olsen are Sue Brown, School Nutrition Association-Wisconsin (SNA-WI) Legislative Chair and Barb Waara SNA-WI President.