CHICAGO, November 17, 2025 — Last year, IFMA The Food Away from Home Association recast itself to better serve the needs of the foodservice industry. Now it’s the Education Foundation’s turn.
The nonprofit leadership-development organization isn’t changing its name, as its sister association did to reflect a sweeping overhaul of its scope and mission. The talent-focused group’s official identity remains IFMA The Food Away from Home Association Education Foundation, or simply the Education Foundation.
But its functions are a different matter. The Education Foundation’s two key programs for developing tomorrow’s foodservice leaders bear little resemblance to what they were two years ago.
Take the Next Gen Execs initiative. Companies that are members of IFMA The Food Away from Home Association are invited to nominate up-and-coming junior executives who've shown the aptitude to become the organizations’ future leaders. The best among them are invited into the 3-year-old program, which aims to heighten the participants’ personal and professional growth.
The process was supercharged this year through the breakdown of the 2025 class into groups, each of which was charged with brainstorming solutions to one of the food-away-from-home industry’s vexing challenges.
How, for instance, can foodservice organizations turn the reams of data they routinely gather into the insights that should guide future growth?
What about AI? If the hype is stripped away, is something truly revolutionary there for the business?
And how can operator, supplier, and distributor finally alleviate the tensions that have strained relations between the three keystones of the supply chain since deliveries were made by horse-drawn wagons?
The results of the brainstorming were delivered at the dual IFMA organizations’ Presidents Conference. Never before had the Next Gen Execs been given presentation time on the main stage of the event. This year, they led off the three-day conference.
The Education Foundation’s other major program is The Summit, a gathering of college students who are considering a career in foodservice. Held on the eve of the industry’s annual May convention in Chicago, the one-day event affords college students an opportunity to pick the brains of industry leaders, including winners of the prestigious Gold and Silver Plate awards.
The youngsters not only learn more about the field they’re considering for their life’s work but come away with valuable connections for future job searches.
Not enough students participated in the first Summit to fill a table. Several dozen participated in this year’s installment.
Additional advances for the Education Foundation came behind the scenes. This year, for instance, its program of awarding $5,000 educational scholarships was expanded to include college sophomores as well as juniors and seniors.
Trustees of the non-profit doubled the number of times they meet in a year, a reflection of all that’s being done by the educational group—and what it foresees as the next steps in its mission of attracting and upgrading industry talent.
“They want to meet to build the messaging, to share that messaging across the industry, and to make IFMA The Food Away from Home Association the magnet for helping the industry to find talent,” said Stefanee Boland, Executive Director of the Education Foundation. “The engagement was spectacular.”
Future moves, she said, could include the addition of job fairs where youngsters hunting for an executive position in the food-away-from-home industry could meet with perspective employers from both the supplier and operator communities.
Next year, each recipient of a scholarship from the EF will be matched with a Next Gen Exec as a mentor.
The organization also intends to involve more youngsters seeking careers outside a culinary track, such as aspiring accountants, marketers or finance specialists.
In addition, the Education Foundation will continue to increase the number of “experiential” scholarships it awards, said Boland. The association sees value in enabling the industry’s future leaders to participate in learning experiences such the Presidents Conference and other industry events, she explains.
“The industry always needs talent,” said Boland. “We’re really expanding this to become the leader in bringing that talent into the industry.”