3 big takeaways from SNIC 20253 big takeaways from SNIC 2025

K-12 school nutrition operators and manufacturers gathered in Phoenix this week for the School Nutrition Industry Conference (SNIC) put on by the School Nutrition Association. Over the course of the conference, school nutrition operators and their industry partners discussed everything from the new school nutrition standards, to implementing AI and more.  

Here are three big takeaways from the conference. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced its final rule for its updates to the school nutrition standards last spring.

Operators and their manufacturer partners are currently paying special attention to the first added sugar phase, which will begin at the start of next school year and will put product-based added sugar restrictions on grain-based desserts, breakfast cereals, yogurts and flavored milk. 

During a session led by Shannon FitzGerald, registered dietician and nutritionist at the Institute of Child Nutrition, manufacturers in the audience shared how they were already offering certain products that would fit the new added sugar restrictions and are working on adding additional products to fit the new standards as well. K-12 operators were also quick to point out that they too were already implementing changes to their menu ahead of the 2025-26 school year to get a head start on getting used to the new regulations. 

FitzGerald is hopeful that while the added sugar restrictions may be tough for some students (especially the older ones) to get used to initially, eventually, they will come around. 

She saw this play out with the implementation of the 2010 Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act (HHFKA) which introduced a wave of nutritional changes to school meals programs in the early 2010’s. During that time, FitzGerald was school nutrition director at a district in Ohio and noticed that while the high school students struggled with the changes brought on by HHFKA, the younger students were more accepting of the new regulations since they were not used to the way things had been prior to the changes. 

“It was a change for [the high schoolers], but our younger kids were just like, ‘Oh, this is how it's been done,” she shared. 

2. AI elicits hesitancy from manufactures 

While some school nutrition departments have leveraged AI to help with certain tasks, some K-12 manufactures are still cautious about relying too much on artificial intelligence. 

During a panel, manufactures shared that AI is not a focus for them at this time and cautioned K-12 nutrition professionals from using the technology for things like writing bid equipment specifications. 

“I would recommend on specifications to pull it from the manufacturer's website because if you've ever tried to generate anything on AI, it does it look anything like what you would write,” Carroll Bender, director of consultant services for Jackson WWS, shared during the panel.  

3. School nutrition teams get creative as labor and challenges continue 

Labor continues to be a challenge for K-12 operators and many are unable to offer competitive wages to attract and retain new employees. As a result, some nutrition teams have started thinking outside the box to come up with other ways to boost their recruitment and retainment efforts.

During a session led by Dr. Yetunde Alade, assistant director for the nutrition team at Clayton County Public Schools in Jonesboro, Georgia, Alade shared how the nutrition department came up with an employee perks program after experiencing severe staffing shortages due to COVID-19.

The program allows employees to receive financial rewards if they do well on the job. For example, employees who receive perfect attendance every quarter receive a $500 bonus on their next paycheck.