If it’s May, it’s time for the IFMA Gold & Silver Plate Weekend!
On Saturday, May 20, over 500 industry leaders gathered to celebrate IFMA’s 69th annual Gold & Silver Plate Awards Celebration, the industry’s longest-standing legacy awards program. The awards ceremony was held in the beautiful Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station. A gala reception and dinner recognized the Silver Plate winners and cheered for the announcement of the 2023 Gold Plate honoree.
At the event, the Silver Plate class were each introduced by their industry mentors, a remarkable group of leaders from across the food-away-from-home ecosystem. As Co-Founder & CEO of Inspire Brands, Paul Brown explained in his introduction of Silver Plate winner, Rob Lynch, President & CEO, Papa John’s International, “We're here tonight to celebrate the best of the best in hospitality leadership.”
But, it may have been Owner & Principal of Corporate Dining, Inc. and Campus Dining, Inc., Tom Newcomb, who spoke as the mentor of honoree Sharon Eliatamby, Senior Project Manager at The World Bank Group, who best summed up the mentors’ feelings, “Every once in a while, we can step back, take it all in, absorb the room, and say....this is right, this is just perfect. Introducing the next awardee is simply that for me...It is just a perfect moment.”
When the 2023 Gold Plate announcement was made, the winner, Jessica Shelly, Director, Student Dining Services at Cincinnati Public Schools expressed her surprise at being selected from such a remarkable group of awardees. She went on to express her gratitude to the food manufacturers who made up the majority of event attendees. “You here tonight are the reason I can feed my kids nutritious meals every day – because you’re so dedicated to your businesses. Thank you for helping me nourish our future.”
The Gold & Silver Plate Awards is the most respected awards program in the food-away-from-home industry. Winners were awarded in nine category segments. They receive a Silver Plate Award, and one is chosen by secret ballot to receive the coveted Gold Plate Award for the year. All winners are inducted into the Gold & Silver Plate Society.
Read about the 2023 Class of Gold & Silver Plate Award recipients here.
“Membership in the Gold and Silver Plate Society is similar to belonging to the foodservice industry's most illustrious sorority or fraternity,” said the host of Saturday night’s celebration and 2019 Gold Plate honoree, Regynald Washington. “Becoming a member of the Society was extremely humbling, exciting, and one of the top highlights of my entire career.”
The weekend started with an exclusive dinner on Thursday at the University Club of Chicago for the 2023 Silver Plate Award recipients and their guests, and then moved to a day of activities hosted by the IFMA Education Foundation on Friday.
Several Gold and Silver Plate Society members joined the 2023 winners and university administrators from hospitality programs across the country for the IFMA Education Summit at the University Club. As IFMA President & CEO, Phil Kafarakis, explained to attendees, “This Summit is a ‘think-tank’ for us as an industry, to come up with more ways to attract young professionals into the food-away-from-home business – especially beyond culinary.”
Sessions at the Summit included: Learning Landscape: Insights from School Partners; Intentional Recruitment with Ecolab; and a review of career paths with two members of the IFMA Next Gen Execs program.
The closing keynote was presented by David Deno, 2023 IFMA Silver Plate winner and Chief Executive Officer of Bloomin’ Brands. Deno shared some of the things he has learned along the way that he believes helped him achieve success in the industry. “Networking is crucial. Pick a mentor. Hire people that are better than you – you have to be comfortable in your own skin. And always do the right thing.”
Friday night, about 200 foodservice professionals came together to witness the induction of the 2022 Silver Plate winners into the Gold & Silver Plate Society. The evening was hosted by the IFMA Education Foundation and its 2023 Chair, and Vice President of Industry Relations at Ecolab, Greg Cocchiarella, who described the ongoing Education Foundation work for attendees, “Through the Foundation, we provide scholarships and stipends for internships to hospitality schools and they then select their student recipients...The Foundation hopes to continue to grow and add universities to our roster of partners, as well as continue to increase the diversity of student recipients.”
Before Kafarakis handed out the Silver Plate pins and aprons to this year’s honorees – a long-standing tradition – chair of IFMA’S Board of Directors and the National Foodservice Director at Hershey, Herb Ring applauded them all, “At IFMA, we believe that the diversity of our industry, the openness of our leaders, and a willingness to collaborate are cornerstones of what we are and what we can become. You can see those traits in all of this year’s honorees!”
Nominations for the 2024 Silver Plate Awards will open in June and run through mid-November. You can read more about the awards, and review the list of past winners, here.
Mark your calendars for the 70th IFMA Gold & Silver Plate Awards Celebration on Saturday, May 18, 2024 at the same location, Chicago’s historic Union Station.