Early CDM, CFPP Career - September/October 2025

 

Name: Jacob Tutty, CDM, CFPP

Job Title: Director of Nutrition Services

Years as a CDM, CFPP: 1 year

 

Why is a career in foodservice the right fit for you?

A career in food service is the right fit for me because I love eating food, and everyone needs to eat. Getting out of high school, I found myself in a place of food insecurity, and I needed to get a job to eat. So, I thought, what better way than going into foodservice? I thought that will always be an important job. People are always going to need to eat. I can do something that matters, and I can have access to food myself.

Why did you choose to earn your CDM, CFPP credential? 

I chose to earn my CDM, CFPP credential because with this job that I took here in this role as a director at a care center of the nutrition department, it's one of the available credentials that's needed if a facility doesn't have a full-time dietitian, which we do have a full-time dietitian consultant. The facility wanted me to get the CDM, CFPP because it makes me more capable and helps me understand the job and responsibilities more. It also helps me understand my relationship with the dietitian and the residents a little more having gotten that formal training, because I went through the nutrition program at the University of North Dakota to become eligible to sit for my CDM, CFPP exam. I got a year's worth of training, and the dietitian I work with was my proctor for that course. I got to learn quite a bit in-depth about the industry for this position. It just made me a much better tool to do my job.

What ANFP tools have helped you get acclimated in your career?

The educational videos, the journal articles, and the access to the forums to discuss industry relevant topics with peers. I really like those forums because there have been times where we have a question like how to get stains out of coffee mugs. That's something that you can go on that forum, post the question, and get a response from 10 other CDM, CFPPs across the country about what they're doing and what mugs they use. I really enjoy the forums because it gives me access to connect with other people working basically the same job as me, so I can get tips and tricks from them. On the other side of the coin, I've helped answer some questions for other people on there, and I really enjoy that.

The ANFP textbooks carried me through my nutrition training at the University of North Dakota. I still have them sitting on my bookshelf in my office for reference all the time. I use those ANFP textbooks to help teach my supervisors some things because I can just flip open to a chapter on staff management, and we can learn from that textbook. They have really good educational materials in them. I think there are a lot of educational tools and networking resources ANFP provides, and I enjoy all of those.

What are you looking forward to most in your career as a CDM, CFPP?

Helping nourish and engage with those who eat my food. My team, we're in a care center. The people we serve need us to eat. They need us. It's a really important job because we need food to survive. I look forward to my job every day because I know that there are people who need my help, and I feel satisfied giving that energy to help them. I also really enjoy helping my team. I've been in foodservice for over a decade. I've worked with a lot of talented people and have learned a lot. I've taken a lot of courses on leadership and mentorship. This job, this career I'm at right now, operating as a CDM, CFPP, allows me to help train and mold young people who are at earlier stages in their careers. I'm able to help elevate them and teach them things based on what I've learned. I enjoy being able to share my knowledge with people and help people grow in their own knowledge. One day they will be able to do it for someone else. I think that's the most satisfying thing: being able to help nourish and engage with, whether that's our residents or employees. It's an extremely meaningful and extremely important job and career.

What advice would you give other young professionals or those searching to build a new career in the foodservice industry?

Figure out why. Plain and simple. Why. Why do you want to work in foodservice?

You need to have a strong “why?” because that “why?” is what's going to carry you forward through your career. I love making high-quality and nutritious food and doing that for people to help nourish and sustain them with something exciting, nutritious, and delicious that they enjoy. That's always been my guiding light. I prepped food a lot when I was growing up, and I loved making food. Then, when I had to get a job, I went right into food. I love food. I love making food. I love eating food. I'm really satisfied when I see other people enjoy the food that I made for them. So, that's always been my "why?". My guiding light is that people need to eat. People want to eat something good, so make it something good.

You need to have a passion for it. You should experiment and see if you have a passion for foodservice, because it's not an easy industry. It can get very stressful. It can be very busy at times. You can be short-staffed, and in a CDM, CFPP environment, at least in a nursing home, we still have to feed everybody. It doesn't matter how many people called in; we still have to get it done. Having passion helps carry you through those stressful situations and times. Make sure that you are genuinely passionate about foodservice, and figure out what you want to do in foodservice. I've worked in restaurants, fast food, grill outs, and catered for weddings and touring musicians. I've trained under a variety of chefs and learned a lot of different techniques and a variety of skills. I think doing something like that is beneficial. If you want to be in foodservice, train with different people who have different things to offer to develop your skill set and see if that's something you want to do. There are so many ways you can go in foodservice. You might love working at a restaurant, or you might hate working at a restaurant. Figure out that whatever you're doing, you enjoy doing it, because you're going to do it better, your life is going to be better, and the product you provide is going to be better.

Food is always going to be important. If you're going to get a CDM, CFPP, the jobs you might get in a nursing home, school or a correctional facility, those are essential positions in society that need good people working in them to help nourish and sustain parts of our population that need that help. Being a CDM, CFPP in the positions that those people fill are extremely important roles in society. I would say if you're curious, dip your feet in the water, and if you find yourself passionate about it, then dive right in. Learn. Take ownership of your learning. You need to learn on your own. Research at home. Learn off the clock. Train on your own. Don't just learn about food when you're at work. Know what you're doing, embody what you're doing, and become what you're doing. If you are in foodservice, I think your identity should align with that. With that comes a genuine passion, which is going to make you so much better at what you do. For your managers and your teammates, that energy is going to make you so much easier to work with. For managers who have a lot to offer, they are going to want to pour as much into you as they can if they see that you are already invested in yourself. Be invested in yourself and take ownership of it.

You do not want to be a leaf in the wind. If you want to get somewhere, be open to experience and failure. Learn from your failure and try not to make those same mistakes twice. I would say to young people, from my experience, be present. Don’t be on your phone. Don't have headphones in and be halfway checked out into an album, audiobook, or playlist. When you are at work learning, be there. Ask questions. Be engaged. Be present. Don't think about your weekend or that social media message you want to respond to. Be thinking about what you're doing in that moment and put your energy into it so you can understand your work better and absorb the information wholly. I think young people have a lot of distractions that we didn't have when I was growing up. That can be a detriment to your learning experience. So, stay focused, stay present, be engaged, and have fun with it too.