School nutrition directors who have earned HMI Recognition Awards shared a common set of lessons with us about what actually moves a program forward. None of them are shocking. They're the kind of simple-sounding practices that turn out to be harder to sustain than they look.
Reflect on the year you just finished
Directors who earn recognition tend to have a year-end reflection habit: what worked, what didn't, and what do we want to try next year. The reflection doesn't have to be formal. A half-day with the core team, some butcher paper, and a willingness to be honest about what flopped. Districts that skip this step tend to repeat the same mistakes.
Create partnerships across the school
Recognized programs pull in partners well beyond the kitchen. Athletic departments care about student nutrition for performance reasons. CTE programs have students who want hands-on culinary experience. Culinary classes at the high school can develop recipes that feed into menu development. These partnerships create supporters inside the building, which pays off when budget conversations come around.
Start small, measure, and iterate
Directors who tried to overhaul everything at once usually told us they wish they had started smaller. Pick one menu change, document the baseline, roll it out, measure the response, and adjust. Three small changes made well beats one big change attempted badly.
Invest in your team's skills first
Staff training has the highest ROI of any investment most directors can make. A team that can handle scratch cooking, fresh ingredient prep, and basic recipe adaptation becomes the operational foundation that everything else rests on. Equipment without trained staff goes under-used. Training without equipment hits a ceiling fast. Both together compound.
Document as you go, not after
Applying for a Recognition Award or writing a grant is much easier when you've been documenting practices throughout the year. Directors who build documentation into weekly routines (menu planning notes, nutritional analysis runs, participation tracking, photo capture) have half the work already done when application windows open.
Share the wins publicly
Programs that celebrate publicly get more public support. Social media posts, school newsletters, announcements at board meetings, student-generated content. Every public win makes the next improvement easier to fund and staff.
Build a peer network
Every director we spoke with said the same thing: find other directors you trust and stay in contact with them. Peer networks are where most problems get solved the fastest. State Agency events, Recognition Award summits, and HMI regional events are good places to build these connections.