President’s Message
OFFICERS
DONNA RIVIELLO NYSNA President Donna Riviello has been a school Food Service Director for the past 11 years . She is currently employed at Clyde - Savannah Central School District. She has been a NYSNA member for all of her eleven years and she looks forward to serving this organization as president! building leadership pipelines. The content of the conference was amazing with our own Executive Director, Jennifer Martin, presenting engaging and inspiring content on how to communicate, connect, engage and lead our associations forward during these very turbulent times. The feedback we received from other state leaders was wonderful. I made some new friends and gained some valuable insight to bring back to both NYSNA and my district. I would also like to thank our generous industry sponsors for making this event possible - it was great spending Friday evening connecting with you one on one. Thank you again for your continued support. I was asked to write about my leadership journey for this issue of Fresh Bites. I began my career in school food service twelve years ago, with no prior school food experience. Like many currently in this profession, I came from the world of restaurants and hospitality management. Initially, I wondered why it had never dawned on me before to enter this segment of the food industry. After all, working in a school was a far cry from the fourteen-hour days, nights, holidays and weekends I had been pulling for the previous twenty five years. I naively thought this job was going to be a breeze, and was in the job for barely a week before I realized that school nutrition was much more challenging than I ever anticipated. But, one thing I very quickly came to know was that I was surrounded by directors from all over the state willing to offer their advice, wisdom and help in any capacity they could. I can only assume my leadership journey began right then and there. To have this amazing group of school nutrition professionals reaching out to make my life easier was such a refreshing change from what I had been used to, and I desperately wanted to be a part of that. I have numerous people to thank for my introduction to NYSNA, as they all reached out to me within my first week of employment. Joellen Martino, Nancy Younglove, Nique Wilson, Yvonne Forget, Todd Fowler, Gerry Barker, Jim Liebow, and Warren Bushart are just a few of the first mentors that reached out to me offering words of encouragement and advice as I learned the intricacies of Child Nutrition. I became a member, attended a conference and was hooked from the start. If I’m being honest, it wasn’t the content of the programming or the dynamic speakers or workshops that pushed me forward; but rather the friendships and amazing people I met along the way, whom have become some of my dearest and closest friends. This group of individuals lifted me up, inspiring me to do the same for others, and thus began my journey. I initially served on the Public Policy & Legislation committee, and over the years served on several other committees before committing to the Board of Directors. Thank you to all of you for voting for me. I am honored, humbled and excited to begin my presidential year serving this association. On a final note, I would encourage each and every one of you to get involved in some way - either at your local chapter or by serving on a committee at the state level. I promise that you will receive far more out of the experience han y u ca possibly imagine. There are so many examples I can share with you about positive experiences I have had. By far, the most rewarding part of serving on the NYSNA board is knowing that I encouraged someone else to lead in some aspect of their life. Nothing makes me happier than to hear someone say that I inspired them to move forward, do more, or get involved. I hope to hear about all of the amazing things you are doing in your programs and please feel free to reach out to me to share your stories, good or bad. I genuinely care and look forward to hearing from you. Wishing all of you a wonderful holiday season and some much-deserved time with your family. I hope to see all of you soon. Happy Holidays! DONNA RIVIELLO President Greetings NYSNA members. I want to start off by saying how great it was to be back in person again for the regional exhibit shows in October. Congratulations to the 2021 Conference Committee and the NYSNA headquarters staff for putting together such amazing events. It was so nice seeing my fellow directors, some of whom I had not seen in several years, and being able to connect with our amazing industry partners was the icing on the cake! I was just excited to be back together in person, so what a bonus to get to see all of those new products as well. I did not realize how much I had missed everyone until we were all in that room together, and from all of the rave reviews we have received about the shows, it seems that many of you feel the same way. NYSNA was very fortunate to be able to host this year’s North East Leadership Conference. All of the SNA northeast regional leaders came together over the course of a three-day weekend in November to discuss association leadership, how to strengthen our state associations, and - Donna-
• •
• •
•
7
8
9
FreshBites
WINTER 2022
FreshBites
WINTER 2022
Powered by FlippingBook