JOB TITLE: Program Director / Instructor of Culinary Arts

Thanks to Idaho Potato Commission for sponsoring the Educator of the Year Award for 2026! This Award is open to secondary and postsecondary educators as well as culinary educators working within the non-profit training sector.

2026 Award Application for Student of the Year Award, sponsored by the Idaho Potato Commission through CAFÉ (Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education)

CAFÉ Talks Episode 103

Imagine not knowing when you will eat next or where that meal will come from? Think about the relationship that sound nutrition has with your ability to learn, understand, focus, grow, and solve everyday problems. When you are hungry, everything else seems to carry less weight. Consider that nearly 25% of young people in America today (including college students) are food insecure. Try to digest how that might be possible in the wealthiest country in the world; a country that produces more food than it needs. Yet, here we are, in the grips of a serious problem that impacts so many.

As educators we have an opportunity and a responsibility to help set the stage for student learning. Without sound nutrition, without adequate healthy calories, our students will find it very difficult to assimilate what it is that we offer in the classroom.

Join CAFÉ Talks for a presentation on Food Insecurity by Chef Thomas Barnes of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. It might just change your perspective on what it means to be a caring teacher.