Greater Tacoma Convention Center
1500 Commerce St, Tacoma, WA 98402

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Registration Information

  Early-Bird Member Member Non-Member
Employees/ Managers $175* $225* $350*
Directors, Supervisors, Chefs, State Agency Staff $225* $275* $450*

*Washington State has a new retail sales tax that went into effect on October 1, 2025. This applies to all registrants attending an event in the State of Washington. The sales tax rate for this event is 10.3%.

 
Register Today!
  • Early Bird Registration closes June 15th. 
  • You must login to receive the Member Rates. Please verify rate is correct prior to payment. If you have any login issues, email [email protected]. 
  • If you would like to register multiple members on the same invoice, please email [email protected]. Be prepared to provide the full name of each registrant. 

 

Agenda (At a Glance)

 

*Subject to Change

Meals Included:

  • Monday Breakfast
  • Monday Lunch
  • Monday Dinner
  • Tuesday Breakfast 
  • Wednesday Breakfast

 

Keynote Speakers

Food Dignity®: Strategies to Create Nutrition Security in Schools

Clancy Cash Harrison transforms the conversation around food, health, and social responsibility through the lens of the school cafeteria. In this powerful keynote, she challenges audience members to reflect on their own assumptions, operational realities, and the critical role they play in shaping student health, dignity, and access to nourishment.

Drawing from her journey of self-awareness as a registered dietitian and past school food service director, Clancy shares how confronting her own food biases reshaped her approach to hunger and nutrition. This interactive session reinvigorates participants’ sense of purpose through a blend of compelling storytelling, research-backed insights, and real-life school-based applications. Attendees will leave inspired and equipped to foster more inclusive, stigma-free meal environments, strengthen collaboration across school 

communities, and ensure every student has dignified access to nourishing food. This engaging, action-driven experience empowers school nutrition professionals to elevate their impact not just by serving meals, but by transforming lives.

 About Clancy

Clancy Cash Harrison, founder of the Food Dignity® Movement and registered dietitian, brings a powerful and practical message to school nutrition professionals. This engaging keynote reframes school meal programs as a cornerstone of student health, equity, and academic success. Through storytelling, research, and real-world strategies, participants will be inspired to create more inclusive, stigma-free meal environments, strengthen collaboration across their schools, and advance nutrition security for every student they serve.

 

 

Root Deep: Leading from Your Why in School Nutrition

The rules are changing. Again.

New dietary guidelines. New proposed regulations. A shifting political landscape around what kids should eat and who gets to decide. If you've been in this field for more than a few years, you already know this feeling — the ground moves, the compliance clock starts, and somehow you're expected to lead your team through it all without missing a meal service.

This closing keynote isn't about the rules.

It's about what makes you effective when the rules change — and change again. It's about the difference between leaders who survive disruption and those who actually bring their teams through it. And it comes down to something that doesn't appear in any federal register: knowing your WHY.

Why did you choose this work? Why do you stay? 

What's the thing that's still true when the budget is tight, the staff is short, and the policy landscape looks nothing like it did five years ago?

Through the lens of servant leadership and real-world change management, this session will challenge you to reconnect with the purpose that brought you to child nutrition — and show you how leading from that purpose makes you a more resilient, more effective, and more inspiring leader for the people around you.

You'll leave with more than CEUs. You'll leave with a reason to go back to work on Monday.

Bring something to write with.

About Patrick

Patrick Garmong knows what it takes to transform a school kitchen — and the people in it. As Associate Director of Culinary Education & Training at the Institute of Child Nutrition (ICN) and founder of the Culinary Institute of Child Nutrition (CICN), he has spent his career turning culinary potential into real change for kids across the country.

Patrick leads national culinary training programs and partnerships with state agencies, school districts, and organizations committed to raising the bar in K-12 school nutrition. His expertise spans scratch cooking, menu development, procurement, and workforce development — grounded always in the realities of what school nutrition professionals face every day.

A dynamic presenter at conferences nationwide, Patrick brings energy, humor, and hard-won operational insight to every room he walks into.

 

  Meet all of the Speakers!

 

Hotel Room Block- Hotel Murano

1320 Broadway, Tacoma, WA 98402

If you plan to stay at the conference hotel, Hotel Murano, please use WSNA’s hotel block for discounted pricing!

To book:

Additional details about Hotel Murano can be found here.

Room Rates

Single- $174.00

Double- $174.00

Triple- $184.00

Quad- $194.00

Parking

Hotel Murano- 

WSNA will receive a 50% discount on prevailing overnight self-parking rates: $15 per night before tax, $16.55 after tax. 

Greater Tacoma Convention Center- 

Please see parking information here. 

 Pre- Conference Option 

Elevate! The Premier School Nutrition Summit

A Preconference Experience Powered by Dairy West

  

Sunday, July 26, 2026 from 1 pm - 4pm

An exclusive, four-hour summit designed for school nutrition directors, Elevate! is a high-energy experience led by Dairy West to help you Power Up Your Program. Through engaging education, hands-on learning, and collaborative networking, directors will explore strategies to strengthen culture, spark innovation, and increase participation. Attendees will leave with practical tools, fresh ideas, and actionable takeaways ready to implement immediately—plus the opportunity to extend the Elevate! experience to their teams in the year ahead.