The Katherine O. Musgrave Award

2024 Recipient: Catherine Hoffmann

The purpose of the Katherine O. Musgrave (KOM) Public Service Award
is to recognize an individual, organization or collaborations for
outstanding work in nutrition policy, education, or research.

MNC presents the award each year at the Annual Conference. To be considered for this award, nominees must:

  1. Have a completed nomination form;

  2. Not be a previous award winner;

  3. Have accomplished their work in Maine.


The deadline to apply for the 2025 KOM Public Service Award is August 1, 2025.

Email alexander.bosse@maine.edu for more information or for questions. 


some history…

Katherine Musgrave was one of the stalwarts of the University of Maine faculty — the consummate teacher, both in the classroom and in distance education, and the untiring human nutrition education researcher and advocate. She came to UMaine the year after getting her degree from Oklahoma State in 1968, teaching countless students who went on to nutrition-related careers, helping train school food service personnel and consulting with local physicians on how to advise patients on healthful eating habits. Katherine ‘retired’ as a full professor in 1985, but continued to teach a popular introductory course on food and nutrition, both on campus, by ITV and online.

Her passion for healthy living and good nutrition was nationally recognized, was award-winning and made a difference in Maine. Her caring for the health and well-being of future generations was evident in so many ways, including the scholarship fund she established in the University of Maine Foundation in 2009 to provide financial assistance to graduate dietetic interns.

Katherine epitomized the teaching, research and community outreach mission of a public research university. We will miss her integrity, vision, wit and all-out love of life.

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“What I believe is that the human body is a miracle that will heal itself and will prevent disease if we treat it right, and I think a large part of this treatment is the food we eat and that’s all I know.”
— Katherine O. Musgrave

Past Recipients

  • 2024: Catherine Hoffman, Dairy Council

  • 2022: Anna Korsen, Full Plates Full Potential

  • 2021: Michael Flynn, and the Maine School Nutrition Staff

    To honor and recognize all Maine School Nutrition Programs for their effort and dedication to the children in our state, especially now, given their response to continue school meals during COVID-19.

  • 2020: Dorothy Klimis-Zacas, PhD, FACN

  • 2019: Mary Rolfe

  • 2018: Cheryl Wixson

  • 2017: Good Shepherd Food Bank

  • 2017: Jeanne Reilly, Director of School Nutrition - RSU 14

  • 2016: Sheila Costello, Waldo County General Hospital Nutrition Services Manager

  • 2016: Gail Lombardi, Maine Dept. of Education Child and Nutrition Services

  • 2014: Kathy Halpin, Maine Medical Center & Marlene Hall, WIC Washington County

  • 2013: Willie Grenier, Maine Agriculture in the Classroom

  • 2012: Karen Kleinkopf, FARMS

  • 2011: Cherie Merrill, School Food Service Director, RSU3

  • 2010: Kirsten Walter, Director, Nutrition Center of Maine in Lewiston

  • 2009: Richard A. Cook, Ph.D

  • 2008: Helen Rankin

  • 2007: Nellie Hedstrom

  • 2006: Mary Owen

  • 2005: Lynn Bolduc

  • 2004: Robert Spear, Agriculture Commissioner

  • 2003: Elizabeth Patten

  • 2002: Lucinda Hale

  • 2001: Dr. Dora Anne Mills

  • 2000: Lynn McGrath

  • 1999: Dr. Margaret Eastman Farmer

  • 1998: Marie Mullin

  • 1997: F. Peter McCarron

  • 1996: Jeanne Hood

  • 1994: Dr. Clifford Rosen

  • 1993: Bill Whitaker

  • 1992: Katherine Musgrave

  • 1991: Maureen McCarthy

  • 1990: Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association

  • 1989: Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program

  • 1988: Patricia Pierson

  • 1987: Raquel Boehmer

  • 1986: Ken and Jim Raffel, Arby's


For more information, please contact Alex Bosse at alexander.bosse@maine.edu

For more information on Katherine O. Musgrave:
Bangor Daily News
Maine Women's Hall of Fame