News
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Nancy Weiss Selected as Santa Barbara School Districts’ Director of Nutrition Services
Nancy Weiss, interim director of the Santa Barbara School Districts’ Department of Nutrition Services, has been selected as the new director. Superintendent Brian Sarvis made the announcement at Tuesday night’s board of education meeting. Ms. Weiss is responsible for purchasing, inventory control, management, oversight of the districts’ elementary and secondary cafeterias and 80 food service personnel.
Ms. Weiss stated, “My mission is to create a community of healthy children and provide nutritional education in the dining rooms and classrooms of our schools. My goal is to create, through my networking and communication skills, a Nutrition Services Department that reaches far beyond the revitalization of food served in our schools.” She added, “I want to implement a total food service system that sustains us all. I want to infuse our schools with local resources, uniting community leaders in the causes of health and nutrition.”
“In selecting Nancy we are taking a major step toward transforming our Nutrition Services program. We are restructuring and moving away from packaged and processed foods to foods that have a higher nutritional value and provide greater health benefits,” said Superintendent Sarvis. He continued, “We know these foods will be a little more expensive, but we want our Nutrition Services program to be the best, health-driven program in the nation. Nancy is passionate about these goals and I have every confidence that she is going to lead the transformation.”
Nancy Weiss has more than 20 years of experience in food service. She was the founder, owner, and operator of SOhO Restaurant for 13 years. She joined the districts’ food service team in 1996, working as the food service coordinator and kitchen manager at Goleta Valley Junior High School. While at Goleta Valley Junior High, she organized and implemented an after school cooking club, teaching basic culinary skills as well as math and nutrition to hundreds of students. In November 2007, she began work as the interim director of Nutrition Services following the October resignation of Frank Lihn. As the interim director, she has eliminated as much commodity processed and prepackaged foods as possible in favor of more nutritious meals. Nutrition Services is now preparing more food from scratch, using whole grains and fresh produce, and providing more chicken, turkey, fish, and rice and beans as protein sources.
A graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, she earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature with an emphasis in journalism, economics, and marketing.