HEY, SUNSHINE
The end of the school year is here. On one hand it’s…Helloooo summer! On the other hand, the finality and closure make me contemplative. Perhaps because it’s tangible evidence that my own children are growing and maturing (slow down, please). Perhaps its somber because friends and colleagues take the natural break as an opportunity to move on, change schools or jobs, or even retire.
I’ll focus on the former since it’s more fun and certainly a good time for SNP to reflect on this whirlwind of a school year.
SNP’s Cookbook, A Chef Walks Into a Cafeteria… was produced and PUBLISHED! Our President, Emily Burson and Executive Chef, Brandon Neumen poured over every detail: collaborating with our culinary team on the recipes, writing each story, reviewing every frame of photography and editing decision, and ensuring the book reflected the company and our mission. We are all proud of our accomplishment and the resulting cookbook. A Chef Walks Into a Cafeteria… is a beautiful representation of who we are and what we do at SNP. I encourage everyone to check out the book on Amazon (here) and start your summers creating some of our recipes in your own kitchens (and please report back using the hashtag #AChefWalksIntoACafeteria). We’d love to feature your food photography on our SNP social accounts.
The launch event for the cookbook brought some of Southern California’s most prominent food and nutrition professionals together at our Bell Gardens central kitchen to see up close the work we do. Guests were treated to the Alphabet Produce Train lunch as well as a demo of our chicken chow mein. It was a fun and fabulous event and certainly one of the highlights of the year for us.
We continue to focus on our planet’s well-being, meeting our goal to address and change something significant each year to move our company toward a greener future. This year we’ve upgraded to energy efficient lighting throughout our entire Bell Gardens facility and continue to expand the use of reusable lunch trays.
SNP is synonymous with scratch cooking. The benefit is of course delicious and fresh food. However, an added benefit is reducing our environmental impact. In school lunch, millions of dollars are wasted every school year on food and packaging. SNP makes every effort to minimize food waste and packaging materials, thereby reducing our carbon footprint.
We will work diligently over the summer to create new recipes for our students and look forward to sharing them in the fall. For now, we wish our SNP community a wonderful, restful, safe, and productive summer.
