FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact:         Rick Hughes, 520-2924
                       Elaine Naleski, 520-2286 

District 11’s Food and Nutritional Services Employee Receives Southwest Regional Award 

Colorado Springs School District 11’s Food and Nutrition Services employee Cyndi Goldbrandsen will be receiving a Southwest regional award from the School Nutrition Association at the Colorado School Nutrition Association’s conference on Saturday, October 10, 2009; Cyndi is the kitchen manager at Russell Middle School. On Friday, October 9, 2009, the National President of the School Nutrition Association will visit Russell Middle School to see their Grab-n-Go breakfast program, which won an award this past summer at the National conference. 

The School Nutrition Association is a national organization for school food service employees; it has more than 55,000 members. This award is given to members who take a special idea, develop it into a goal and use that goal to help the school’s nutrition program grow. Cyndi’s idea was to develop a Grab-N-Go breakfast for students who came too late for the regular breakfast program. Cyndi and her crew now serve an average of 200 Grab-N-Go sack breakfasts daily. This is in addition to the regular breakfast program. Brain based studies have proven that breakfast fuels the brain and enables students to better process information.   Cyndi is being presented her award by Dora Rivas, the President of the School Nutrition Association.