Brenda Thompson-Wattles is a culinary chef and registered dietitian who consults for child nutrition programs. As an advocate for culinary nutrition professionals around the country, her mission is to empower them to embrace nutrition, influence greatness within each other, and craft culinary cultures in their kitchens — ultimately inspiring children to make healthy choices. Brenda first studied to become a registered dietitian at the University of Idaho. Later, she received her culinary degree at the Le Cordon Blue College of Culinary Arts in Austin, Texas. For Brenda, becoming a chef was the ideal complement to her career as a dietitian, and she began her life’s work to create healthy foods that are not only nutrient-rich, but taste delicious, too. That decision afforded her many exciting opportunities, such as publishing several USDA child nutrition standardized cookbooks which include: Chef Designed School Lunch Cookbook, Chef Designed School Breakfast Cookbook, Idaho Grown Legumes – Chef Recipes for Child Nutrition Programs, Idaho CACFP Menu Toolkit, and the USDA’s CACFP Multi-Culture Cuisine Cookbook. She was a member of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Chef’s Move to Schools, National Advisory Group from 2014 to 2016. In addition, Brenda worked as a state employee where she collaborated with teams to write detailed proposals. These include: Team Nutrition Training Grants, Administrative Review and Training Grants, and requests for quotes. Collectively, these proposals have resulted in over a million dollars in funding. In addition, she worked as a district area manager where she managed nine schools, which included the training kitchen. Today, Brenda is celebrating her tenth year working as a consultant in child nutrition programs. She is a trainer for the Institute of Child Nutrition’s Healthy Cuisine for Kids and also the featured chef in their online culinary videos for childcare. Brenda currently serves on the School Nutrition Association’s National Chef Task Force. @ChefBrendaRDN