Next Up Podcast

Most districts that serve pork treat it as a limited-time offer or a once-a-month special. LaChell Miller, MS, RDN, CC, the Senior Manager National Nutrition Programs at the National Pork Board, and registered dietitian; not to mention a certified Culinarian building the National Pork Board's K-12 work, wants it on the line weekly, at breakfast and at lunch.In partnership with the National Pork Board.IN THIS EPISODE:- How pork on entitlement compares with other proteins on cost (her figures, with a price gap she calls nearly double)- The pork items you can order with entitlement dollars: pulled pork, meatballs, rib patties, sausage patties, ham and picnic pork- What to do if your district has no kitchen, from heat-and-serve products to speed-scratch recipes with five ingredients or fewerSuggested Links:- Pork & Partners - Pork & Partners: Human Nutrition Research - Pork on the Plate K–12 Recipe Book - Speed Scratch Recipes - National Pork Board - Pork Nutrition Information: - Drive Efficiency of your Entitlement Dollars CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST:- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TasteWhatPorkCanDo/- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/porkandpartners?stkn=andqZWp2dGUwOTJy- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/nationalporkboard- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lachellmiller/- Website: https://pork.org/CONNECT WITH OUR HOST: - Instagram (Marlon Gordon): https://www.instagram.com/nxtgenmarlon/- LinkedIn (Marlon Gordon): https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlon-gordon/- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-up-podcast/id1598968019- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ex3Oj7aodeUe48EJGy9DzPRODUCED BY NXTGEN NETWORK- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtgen_network/- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1E8s9SrHUj/- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nxtgen-network/- YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nxtgennetwork#NationalPorkBoard #PorkInSchools #FarmToSchool #USDAFoods #NationalPorkMonth

Whole milk is back in school meals, and new added sugar and sodium limits may arrive in 2027-28.Built for school nutrition directors, menu planners and foodservice teams. Marlon Gordon talks milk, menus and the rule changes ahead with a panel of registered dietitians from the dairy industry and the school cafeteria:Katie Bambacht, RD, SNSVP Nutrition Affairs, National Dairy CouncilJana Miller, RDN, LDNYouth Wellness Manager, The Dairy AllianceSharon Sanders, MS, RDN, LDDirector of Child Nutrition, Birmingham City Schools, ALIn partnership with the National Dairy Council.In this episode:- Why breakfast menus are the biggest challenge under the 2027-28 added sugar and sodium standards- How USDA's new rule extends whole milk and other higher-fat options to breakfast and CACFP- Why milk's saturated fat no longer has to count in your nutrient analysis- Why removing flavored milk can cut participation and raise waste, and why school chocolate milk now averages 7.2g of added sugar per 8 oz- Smart Swaps: recipes taste-tested with 2,500+ students, including the ones that got cut- How Birmingham City Schools is moving toward scratch cooking to control sodium and food cost- Moo Brew: a cold-brew style drink with 8 oz of milk that counts as part of the reimbursable meal- How districts can find grants for smoothie and coffee programs through their local dairy councilTIMESTAMPS00:00 Three dietitians, one toast02:07 From intern to district nutrition director02:52 The rule changes coming for school meals05:06 Grants for smoothie and coffee programs06:31 13 essential nutrients in every milk07:36 Chocolate milk as a recovery drink09:19 Wings: a top seller in Birmingham10:02 Inside the nutrient analysis behind every tray11:15 Smart Swaps: recipes built for the new standards14:30 Why breakfast is the biggest challenge16:20 Favorite recipes: cherry lime smoothie bowl19:06 Can a 20,000-student district scratch cook?22:35 The recipes cut after 2,500 student taste tests24:57 Whole milk is back: what the new rule allows28:46 Chocolate milk: 50% less added sugar30:25 Robotic milkers and cow Fitbits33:36 Why each became a registered dietitian38:10 Advice for young RDs42:16 Do Smart Swaps raise participation?46:16 Is milk actually hydrating?47:55 The next 5 to 10 years of child nutrition50:30 When kids stop drinking milk53:19 Breaking the school meal stigma56:15 School lunch memories57:33 The recipe winning with students: apple nachos1:01:22 16 dairy councils: find yours1:02:23 Why they stay in this work1:06:16 Moo Brew: cold brew with 8 oz of milk1:09:45 Free marketing kits for programsSubscribe to Next Up for straight talk on school nutrition, and turn on notifications so the next episode doesn't slip past you.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CONNECT WITH NEXT UP PODCAST━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nextuptalkshow/ Instagram (Marlon Gordon): https://www.instagram.com/nxtgenmarlon/ LinkedIn (Marlon Gordon): https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlon-gordon/ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-up-podcast/id1598968019 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ex3Oj7aodeUe48EJGy9Dz━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PRODUCED BY NXTGEN NETWORK━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtgen_network/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1E8s9SrHUj/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nxtgen-network/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nxtgennetwork#NextUpPodcast #SchoolNutrition #SchoolMeals #NxtGenNetwork #ChildNutrition #K12Foodservice #SchoolBreakfast #SchoolLunch #SchoolNutritionDirector #WholeMilk #SchoolMilk #SmartSwaps #ScratchCooking #RegisteredDietitian #USDA

AI won't replace you. The person who uses it will.In this special edition of the Next Up Podcast, Marlon sits down with NxtGen Network Social Media Managers Rachel and Kariss. They talk AI, social media strategy, school nutrition marketing, and what really happens behind NxtGen's content.Rachel and Kariss pull back the curtain on the AI tools they've built into their daily workflow. Kariss shares the AI "brand voice" skill she built to create NxtGen-style content on command. They also break down a client simulator that helps the team anticipate how clients might react to content before it's ever pitched.The conversation goes beyond AI. They talk about the student ambassador program bringing real student voices into the school meals conversation and the 100+ comments on the #THISisschoolmeals Show teaser. Marlon also shares how he built a training portal for Seattle Public Schools' video team in a single afternoon.Plus, get the inside story on Immersion, NxtGen's & Cool School Cafe's new one-day in Tampa, FL and the launch of NxtGen Pro.And which client is the hardest for the NxtGen social media team to work with?NxtGen itself.If you work in school nutrition, K-12 foodservice, social media marketing, school district communications, or you're exploring how AI can improve your workflow, this episode is for you.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━PRODUCED BY NXTGEN NETWORKInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtgen_network/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1E8s9SrHUj/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nxtgen-network/YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nxtgennetworkCONNECT WITH NEXT UP PODCASTInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/nextuptalkshow/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-up-podcast/id1598968019Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ex3Oj7aodeUe48EJGy9DzCONNECT WITH OUR GUESTSRachel | Social Media Manager, NxtGen NetworkLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/racheldreslinskiKariss | Social Media Manager, NxtGen NetworkLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kariss-harvey-96731823aCONNECT WITH MARLONInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtgenmarlon/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlon-gordon/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━TIMESTAMPS00:00 Marlon brings his "street team" onto the mic01:24 Rachel's origin story and an audition interview at ANC03:24 The hotel switch nobody told Kariss about04:57 The business side of school lunch07:40 How Rachel and Kariss ended up in content08:24 The prank Marlon pulled during Rachel's interview09:43 A day in the life of a school nutrition social media manager11:40 The meeting Rachel actually looks forward to14:52 Introducing Immersion 17:44 The most surprising school meals they've seen19:03 Why that "fried" mac and cheese isn't actually fried20:19 Inside the 100+ comments on the #THISisschoolmeals teaser23:35 The manufacturers and school districts behind their day-to-day25:33 Which client is the hardest to work with?27:04 The AI-made reel with an overnight turnaround29:06 Claude, Gemini, Nano Banana and Veo33:40 Marlon's AI rabbit hole and Gary Vaynerchuk38:37 The student ambassador program giving kids a voice41:56 Introducing NxtGen Pro43:52 How the team grows professionally53:09 Will AI replace social media teams?56:03 The AI training portal built for Seattle Public Schools58:11 Favorite school meals and closing thoughts#SchoolNutrition #K12 #ArtificialIntelligence #SocialMediaMarketing #SchoolMeals #NxtGenNetwork #NextUpPodcast

DRAFTWhat happens when a Food & Nutrition Officer spends 25 years inside one of the largest school districts in America — and refuses to settle for "good enough"? You get Angie Kasselakis, RDN, SHRM-SCP — and a school meal program feeding 156,000 kids a day across 360+ schools in Miami-Dade County.In this episode, Marlon Gordon sits down with Angie Kasselakis, Food & Nutrition Officer at Miami-Dade County Public Schools, to talk about her 25-year journey from part-time food service worker to leading 2,500 staff across one of the most complex school nutrition operations in the country. They dive into how Miami-Dade was removing food dyes, MSG, and HFCS before it was a national conversation, how a 15-student nutrition ambassador program is already reshaping the menu, what a 600-kid food show with 60 vendors actually looks like, why she'd tell aspiring RDs to go into business, and what scratch cooking jambalaya at scale taught her team about leadership.Whether you're a school nutrition director, a food service professional, a K-12 manufacturer, or someone who cares about what kids eat — this episode is packed with real talk on leadership, clean labels, student engagement, and the future of school food.===========================Connect with our guest!===========================LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akasselakis===========================Connect with us!===========================Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtgen_network/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtgenmarlon/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NxtGenNetworkAgencyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nxtgen-network/===========================================Subscribe and Listen to the Next Up Podcast HERE 📱===========================================➡︎ YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nxtgennetwork/podcasts➡︎ Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-up-podcast/id1598968019➡︎ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ex3Oj7aodeUe48EJGy9Dz⏱️ Timestamps ⏱️00:00 Passion Meets Purpose: The Journey Begins00:30 Introducing Angie Kasselakis & Miami-Dade County Public Schools01:15 The Business Card Story: How They Met at SNA02:48 25 Years in One District: Angie's Career Journey05:12 Miami-Dade by the Numbers: 360 Schools, 156K Meals, 2,500 Staff07:36 Why Angie Loves HR: SHRM-SCP & the 51% Pass Rate09:58 Clean Labels Before It Was Cool: Removing Food Dyes & MSG12:19 Do Students Care About Ingredients? Spoiler: Yes14:39 Building the Student Nutrition Ambassador Program17:06 Educating Ambassadors & Bringing Them to the Food Show19:24 Student Menu Takeover Week: Kids Pick the Entire Menu21:49 Surprise Cafeteria Visits: Going to Schools Unannounced23:59 What Angie Loves Most About Her Job26:14 Teaching Kids and Parents to Cook Real Food27:48 New USDA Dietary Guidelines: Why This RDN Is Excited29:58 Scratch Cooking at Scale: Cooks & Bakers Training32:20 Where Healthy Eating Really Starts: Home vs. School34:42 Students in the Kitchen: Culinary Competitions & Talent36:42 The Jambalaya Story: How a Scratch Recipe Won the District39:09 School Nutrition Conferences vs. HR Conferences41:30 Recruiting Dietetic Interns Into Food Service43:52 Sports Nutrition vs. Food Service: Where the RD Pipeline Goes46:14 Hurricane Days & the $1M Funding Reality48:28 Student Ambassadors Defending the Program on Social Media50:39 Closing: Miami-Dade Is Next Level

Sponsored by Red Gold Tomatoes, this special live episode of the Next Up Podcast was filmed at the NxtGen Masterclass in Orlando, FL, bringing together school nutrition leaders, manufacturers, and industry professionals to talk about the future of K-12 foodservice.From branding and marketing to product innovation and student engagement, the conversation dives into new ideas helping school meal programs grow and better connect with their communities.Thank you to Red Gold for continuing to support K-12 nutrition programs with high-quality, versatile tomato products that help operators create flavorful, reliable meals students love.===========================Connect with us! ===========================IG: https://www.instagram.com/nxtgen_network/IG: https://www.instagram.com/nextuptalkshow/IG: https://www.instagram.com/nxtgenmarlon/FB: https://www.facebook.com/NxtGenNetwork365Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nxtgen-network/Twitter: https://twitter.com/NxtGen_NetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nxtgen.networkCapabilities Deck: https://nxtgennetwork.serveddigizine.com/NxtGen-Capabilitiy-Deck/===========================Connect with our guests! ===========================IG: https://www.instagram.com/redgoldtomatoes/FB: Red Gold K-12 FB | https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578177140268FB: https://www.facebook.com/RedGoldTomatoes/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/red-goldTwitter: https://twitter.com/RedGoldTomatoesWeb: https://www.redgoldtomatoes.com/redgoldfoodservice/segment/k-12/========================================Subscribe and Listen to the Next Up Podcast HERE:📱 ========================================➡︎ YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nxtgennetwork/podcasts➡︎ Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-up-podcast/id1598968019➡︎ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ex3Oj7aodeUe48EJGy9Dz⏰ Timecodes ⏰00:00 Inspiration Behind the Podcast03:03 Community Pride and School Culture06:01 Innovative School Meal Solutions09:05 Product Development and Nutritional Standards12:10 Branding in K-12 Nutrition15:06 Future Initiatives and Exciting Projects18:01 Takeaways from the Master Class