Applications for the 2002 Crumbine Award--deadline approaching. (NEHA News).

The Foodservice & Packaging Institute (FPI) is still accepting applications from local public-health agencies for the 2002 Samuel j. Crumbine Award for Excellence in Food Protection at the Local Level, which annually recognizes excellence in food protection services at agencies in the United States and Canada.

Entries for the Crumbine Award competition are limited to U.S. and Canadian local-government (county, district, city, town, or township) public-health agencies that provide food protection services to their communities under authority of a statute or an ordinance. Past winners may apply again five years after receiving the award.

The winner is selected by an independent panel of food protection practitioners that includes representatives from leading public-health and environmental health associations, past Crumbine Award winners, a consumer advocate, and a food industry representative. The panel makes its selection each spring in a judging process administered by the FPI, which has been a sponsor of the Crumbine award for 46 years. The application deadline for this year's award is March 15, 2002.

"Each year the Crumbine jury reviews applications from large and small public-health programs," said Lynn Rosseth, director of market development for FPI. "The size of the program is irrelevant." The Crumbine jury measures achievement according to four basic criteria:

* sustained improvements and excellence, as documented by specific outcomes and achievements, over the preceding three to five years, as evidenced by continual improvements in the basic components of a comprehensive program;

* innovative and effective use of program methods and problem solving to reduce the community's risk from foodborne disease;

* demonstrated improvements in planning, managing, and evaluating a comprehensive program; and

* successful involvement of people (department managers, staff, industry, the public) in reaching the goals of the food protection program.

Named for one of America's most renowned health officers and health educators--Samuel J. Crumbine, M.D. (1862-1954)--the award has elevated the importance of food protection programs within local public-health agencies and has inspired excellence in the planning and delivery of those services. The Crumbine Award was first offered in 1955 and has been presented virtually every year since then.

For more information about the Crumbine Award, including the 2002 award criteria, check out FPI's Web site at <www.fpi.org> (in the "Sanitation" pages), or contact Ms. Rosseth at [phone] or <[e-mail]>. But act quickly-the deadline is near!