The Idaho Potato Commission along with the Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education selected Tri-Couty Career Center Chef Instructor Kathryn Mosher to receive the 2022 Secondary Educator of the Year award.

Mosher has taught culinary arts classes at the Tri-County Career Center for five years. Her leadership roles in local and state organizations have enriched the lives of both her students and the community. Her work outside the Career Center has provided students with opportunities to apply their knowledge and learn networking skills.

For three years, Mosher served as a Family, Career and Community Leaders of America regional culinary arts competition coordinator. This past year, she organized a competition that included four events for more than 75 participants and more than 25 evaluators and volunteers at Columbus State Community College.

Also in 2022, she participated on an Ohio education committee that helped build and test a pastry performance assessment that will be utilized in culinary classrooms across the state next year.

For five years she has coordinated training and programming for the Farm to School program, which looks to connect students with fresh, local food. Each year her students help prep over 3,000 pounds of produce distributed to 13 schools throughout four school districts.

Since 2016, Mosher has participated in the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks, ACEnet. Because of her work in this organization, her students have attended gatherings with professional community members and catered breakfast meetings. The students also cooked two dinners for 200 Nelsonville community members in 2022.

In 2019, COVID shut down ACEnet’s community dinners and support. However, understanding her community needed help more than ever, Mosher joined a group of other Nelsonville-area agencies and helped devise a plan to provide multiple meal kits and groceries for almost 300 people each week. She and other volunteers would prepare, cook and package a variety of locally donated food products. They fed over 17,000 meals in 2020 while supporting local farmers and food producers through purchasing programs that supplied donations of local products.