Movers and Shakers: Manatee District's Director of Food and Nutrition Wins Prestigious 'Silver Plate' Award

Sandra Ford

BRADENTON -- Sandra Ford, the Manatee County School District’s Director of Food and Nutrition, was awarded a “2014 Silver Plate” last night at the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association’s 60th Annual Gold and Silver Plate Awards, held at the Great Hall in Union Station in Chicago.

Called "the Academy Awards of Foodservice," the IFMA instituted the Gold and Silver Plate Awards in 1954 to pay tribute to the food industry’s most outstanding and innovative talents in nine segments of foodservice operations: Independent Restaurants/Multi-Concept; Chain Full Service/Multi Concept; Chain Limited Service; Business and Industry/Foodservice Management; Health Care; Elementary and Secondary Schools; Colleges and Universities; Specialty Foodservice; and Hotels and Lodging.

Ms. Ford won the “Silver Plate” for Elementary and Secondary Schools for successfully instituting service-oriented training programs for food service staff, developing and implementing data dashboards to monitor and measure how the food service program is operating and for fostering a spirit of friendliness between food service staff and students.

This was the second major award bestowed on Ms. Ford during the last six months. In January, she received the Golden School Food Service Director of the Year Award at the National Foodservice Achievement Management Excellence Awards held in Key Biscayne. In addition, Ms. Ford served as President of the School Nutrition Association during 2012-2013. The School Nutrition Association is a national, non-profit professional organization representing 55,000 school nutrition professionals across the country.