Early CDM, CFPP Career - July/August 2026

 

Name: David Black, CDM, CFPP

Job Title: Patient Food Service Manager

CDM, CFPP Since: February 2023

 

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

I believe my personality fits food service. I attribute a lot of it to my parents growing up. I had a very social childhood, with a lot of friends and family, and I can pretty much talk to anybody. My career has mainly been in hotels and hospitality. I studied hospitality at Kent State University, and I was a banquet director at 24. This hospital is my first venture into healthcare. So, understanding the science behind food service has been a big deal to me.

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

After getting my job at the hospital, I started looking into the credential after I worked with several colleagues who had the acronym after their name. I was curious what that meant, so I started doing research on the credential. It is a very vital tool for my role at the hospital. I realized the pathway on how to achieve this credential. It's very important for my role at the hospital due to how many patients we serve. We serve over 3,000 meals a day, and then we have over 75 different diets at the Cleveland Clinic.

I took an online class through the University of North Dakota, and this is the Nutrition and Food Service Professional Training Program. I took the accelerated class, which was three months, and then a month later, I took the CDM, CFPP Credentialing Exam, and I was able to achieve that. I thought it was extremely important to have that in my role today as I work at the hospital.

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

Continuing education is a big one. I went to the ANFP spring conference in Cleveland, and I got to network with a lot of other colleagues that are in the same hospital environment. Even meeting new people that were CDM, CFPPs that work for school districts or nursing homes and to hear their experiences was really interesting. Seeing what opportunities they face, and you're in classes with them to understand where they were coming from, and you can get new ideas. I really got a lot out of the conference. You're always learning different things, and you have to achieve 45 CEs within a three-year period. That goes above and beyond your day-to-day operations in your main role. I'm very fortunate to work for Morrison Healthcare Compass Group. They do have CEs with our training that goes towards that which really helps out a lot. So, it kind of goes hand in hand. I'm very thankful for that, but it can go a long way to further your career.

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

I think the credential does a lot of things for you. It makes you credible in your role, and it opens doors for you. The credential has the ability to open doors, like being promoted as a director or even more than that. I see a lot of my colleagues who have moved up the chain in my company. So, I'm most looking forward to leading a team and sharing my knowledge. There's a lot of information that is learned at work, but the CDM, CFPP also has extra information that we can share with the team and share a different perspective. That's why I think it's important too. It's almost been three years since I've had the credential, and now I'm able to share some of that information with my team.

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

Being in the foodservice industry, hotels, restaurants, and even independent living most of my career, I found that healthcare is really the way to go. You’re able to have a better work-life balance, and it's just a completely different environment. You're caring for patients in my role. So, you have to really believe what your purpose is and what you're trying to figure out in your career. My purpose is always to help patients leave the hospital and give them nutrition to be strong enough to leave. Our team is serving world-class food to the patients to make sure that they're strong enough to leave. We have a very vulnerable population hospital, so it depends on what you want to do with your career.

While working in hotels and restaurants, I worked every single weekend. This job now allows me to have a few weekends off here and there, and it's a better work-life balance for me and gives me a stronger purpose. I've done a lot of wedding receptions in my career, served a lot of food, and, at least personally for me, I can only do so much of that for so long. I think [what I do for work now is] really important.