CRISES TURN INTO OPPORTUNITIES AT HOUSTON ISO

摘要

In May 2017, at the start of her tenure as head of Nutrition Services for the Houston Independent School District (HISD), Betti Wiggins recalls a conversation she had with Bill Ludwig, regional administrator of the USDA's Southwest Regional Office."1 got a call from our Midwest office that said, 'We sent you our best' and they recommended I get down here and meet you," Ludwig told her."We then started talking about how HISD was underperforming and 'whatever you did in Detroit, we need you to do it here,'" recalls Wiggins, who served as director of nutrition services for the Detroit Public Schools for nine years before coming to HISD,which was transitioning its meal program to self-operation after years of contract management. That was something she had already successfully accomplished in the Motor City and has subsequently also now accomplished in Houston, a district four times the size of Detroit and one of the largest in the country.