Samantha Cowens-Gasbarro, SNS is a Johnson & Wales University graduate with a degree in Culinary Nutrition. Her love of food and nutrition resulted in a 10-year career in restaurants and as a personal chef for professional athletes during which she also taught healthy cooking classes to kids and adults in the Boston area. She found her culinary skills and passion for creating healthy eating habits align when she moved to Maine and began a career in school nutrition. She spent five and a half years as chef for the Windham-Raymond Schools in Southern Maine, where she created new and healthy recipes, increased scratch cooking while training staff, developed sustainable farm to school programs, and taught kids the importance of healthy eating, all while increasing participation for that district. Currently, she is focused on training school nutrition professionals throughout Maine and in different areas of the country on culinary skills and methods of improving food quality in their kitchens. She serves as an active member of The Culinary Institute of America’s Healthy Kids Collaborative and is on the Advisory Board for the Institute of Child Nutrition’s Culinary Training and Education Initiative.  She believes that through school meals, nutrition education and exposure to new and healthy foods we can create a generation of healthy eaters. (Windham, ME)