 260 Attend the 39th Annual School Food Service Certification Institute The 2003 weeklong Child Nutrition Program Certification Institute was held June 22-27 on the campus of Augustana College in Sioux Falls. The certification institute provided 30 hours of training in each of six tracks. Participants came away with knowledge and skills, and the opportunity to network with other food service staff to enhance their ability to operate successful child nutrition programs. This year 260 child nutrition program employees participated in the institute. For those participants taking the ServSafe course, 75 out of 88 passed the exam with an average score of 87%! Serve Safe is a course established by the National Restaurant Association to ensure that food handlers understand food-borne illness and the pathogens causing this illness. The course teaches personal hygiene; the receiving, storing, and preparing of food; pesticide control; proper cleaning and sanitizing; and the relationship between cross contamination and time/temperature abuse as it applies to preventing food-borne illness. The Serve Safe course is provided annually in track 1 of the certification institute. Participants must pass the test and score at least 75 of 100 points in order to be a "certified food handler" by the National Restaurant Association.
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