5 County School Districts Win HMI Awards

AROOSTOOK COUNTY, Maine (WAGM) - Five school districts in Aroostook County have earned national recognition from the Healthy Meals Incentives Program. Five school districts in Aroostook County won Healthy Meals Incentives awards; the Easton School Department, the Madawaska School Department, MSAD 1, MSAD 27, and RSU 33. Each district received multiple awards such as the Small and/or Rural School Food Authority Lunch Trailblazer Award, the Small and/or Rural Breakfast Trailblazer Award, the Breakfast Trailblazer Award, the Lunch Trailblazer Award, the Innovation in Nutrition Education Award, the Innovation in the Preparation of School Meals Award, and the Innovative School Lunch Makeover Award.

Melanie Lagasse, the Valley Unified Education Food Service Director said: “So, the healthy meal incentives award is a national award that we as food service directors apply for and we have certain criteria that we have to meet. Well, there was 10 awards given to Aroostook County; Easton, Presque Isle, Madawaska, Fort Kent, and St. Agatha all received the awards. It makes it so that our staff is rewarded for something that they do, and they work hard, and this is a wonderful award for them to receive.”

Laura Baker, Presque Isle’s Food Service Director said: “We can’t do this or even get these awards without our staff so I’m very proud of my staff for doing the work that they needed to, to lower the sodium and lower the sugar in the meals for the kids, so that we were able to achieve this award.”

Melanie added: “And it also brings out the fact that the staffs do a lot of scratch cooking. They do a lot of local farm to school and then it also gives us the opportunity to do recipe development which we can then have our staff help with the kids’ taste test and it gives us lots of opportunities to promote the nutrition program in the school.” These awards highlight the dedication of school nutrition teams across the region, celebrating their efforts to improve meal quality, promote healthy eating, and engage students in the process.