Dear Members of The Oregon School Nutrition Association:
As you all know, the past 16 months have been very challenging for everyone in the school nutrition world and in our everyday lives in general. We have become experts at scheduling and attending Zoom meetings, Google meetings, and Teams meetings. We haven’t seen many of our colleagues in person for months and these circumstances have put additional stress on our already stressful lives.
We learned, very quickly, how to get meals into student’s hands while they attended school virtually from their homes. We have dealt with product and supply shortages and labor issues that would normally throw our programs into chaos, but we made lemonade out of those lemons and made it work! As our districts made decisions that changed daily, and we asked our staff to do “one more thing,” it became our motto.
I am so proud of the districts across Oregon and I thank you for the work that you were able to do to pull it all together and continue to feed Oregon’s hungry children for the past 16 months.
One of the unfortunate outcomes of the pandemic, but not just the pandemic, is the many open positions on the OSNA Executive Board. We currently have the following open positions: President, President-Elect, Vice President, Area 3 Rep (Coos, Curry, Douglas, and Lane Counties), Area 5 Rep (Crook, Deschutes, Gilliam, Hood River, Jefferson, Sherman, Wasco and Wheeler Counties), and Area 6 Rep (Baker, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union and Wallowa Counties).
Area Reps must live and work in the county they are representing.
We will hold a special election in August, so send in your nominations soon. For more information regarding eligibility to serve on the board, please contact me by email.
We plan to hold our Annual Conference in person in March of 2022 and it is important that we get some people that are capable of putting together a post-pandemic conference that I’m sure will be very well attended.
I have enjoyed the last two years as the President of OSNA. I am truly thankful for the time I have been a part of the OSNA Board. I have met some amazing people and made lasting friendships.
Thank you.
Becki Wicks, OSNA President