ASFSA's Sackin joins Bush transition team's agricultural advisory committee

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 22, 2001 by Barry Sackin

ASFSA

FAIRFAX, VA. -- Barry Sackin, who normally tracks activity in the federal government for the American School Food Service Association, is participating in government formation this month.

Sackin, the association's director of government affairs and media relations, was appointed to the transition team for the incoming Bush administration. Sackin will sit on the agricultural advisory committee that will assist the changeover at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"This significant invitation demonstrates the political clout ASFSA has achieved," ASFSA officials commented in a written statement. "Barry Sackin is the only representative of the nutrition and anti-hunger communities who has been asked to serve on this committee. The honor also indicates a continued positive working relationship with USDA."

Sackin, who was in New Orleans preparing for ASFSA's annual Industry Seminar, called the opportunity "exciting."

"As the only program person selected in a group of food and agricultural people, I'm looking at this as a way to promote the needs of school foodservice," he said. He is drafting a series of one-page position papers on various topics related to school foodservice and nutrition to present to the transition committee.

"Theoretically, our job will end at the inauguration, but it has been made clear that our expertise and insight will probably be needed even after the administration is in place," he added.

Sackin has been on the staff of ASFSA for nearly four years. Before joining the association, he was foodservice director for the Anaheim, Calif., School District. President George W. Bush's agriculture secretary-designate, Ann M. Veneman, is from California.

An attorney based in Sacramento, Calif., Veneman stands to become the first female secretary of agriculture. She is well acquainted with food and farm issues at both the state and federal levels. She served as secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture from 1995 to 1999. Before that she was an official at the USDA from 1986 to 1993, during the Reagan and Bush administrations. When she was promoted to deputy secretary of agriculture in 1991, she became the highest-ranking woman ever in the department.