Local school food directors serving in state offices

Tina Byrd, Food Service Director of Armorel Schools, was recently installed as president of the Arkansas School Nutrition Association, with Tiffany Snyder, Food Service Director of Blytheville Schools, as vice president.

Byrd said it's not very often that the president and vice president are from the same area.

"You run for president and you are making a four year commitment when you do it," Byrd explained. "I served a year as vice president, a year as president elect, and then last week I started my year as president. The year after you serve as president you are conference chair. You are responsible for putting together the state conference. It is a four year volunteer commitment."

Snyder said she is just beginning her four year commitment and will serve as president elect next year. She will spend two years going through a national leadership program to prepare to be president of the Arkansas School Nutrition Association.

"We follow the guidelines the National School Nutrition Program has set," Byrd said. "Right now we are focusing on the Reauthorization Act for the healthy school meals. In February I will go to the legislative action conference in Washington D.C. where we will lobby Congress about what we want to see added to the Reauthorization Act."

When asked if they have had many complaints about students not getting enough to eat, both said their schools offer a wide variety of options.

"We faced complaints at first," Byrd said. "We also belong to the Northeast Arkansas Nutrition Consortium, which consists of 20 school districts in Northeast Arkansas, and we all started preparing our kids before it all came down. We knew we were going to 50 percent whole grains, and we knew we were going to more fresh fruit and vegetables. So we started our kids the year before so they were ready for it. My kids have pretty well adjusted to it."

"I haven't hear any complaints this year," Snyder said. "Our participation has actually gone up this year. We have a wide variety of offerings. We do give enough food."

Byrd said the problem is that there are days that students don't like the options, but others when they like everything.

"Even when we were not offering the healthy choices, we could not please every child," Byrd said. "Kids are not going to like everything we serve. You can't please everyone."

"We get their opinions and we are all offering more choices now," Snyder said.

Byrd said there are multiple lunch choices daily but sometimes students only choose one or two of the food options.

"We ask for feedback from all the school districts," Byrd said. "We say send us your good thoughts, your complaints and suggestions. We take it all when we go to state and federal meetings. I make this four year volunteer commitment because I believe in our Association and I believe that there are lots of schools where the two meals students are served are the only meals they get. School meals have always been healthy. They are healthier now but we have always provided children with nutritious meals."

"It is not as bad as what the media makes it out to be," Snyder said. "At least not in our area. You see the pictures of a child that has two items on their try and parents saying that is all my child was offered. In reality they were offered six options but the child only chose two."

Snyder said she has had to have talks with parents and explain that there are a number of options available. Byrd said there are students, especially high school students still learning what some of the offerings are. She said local schools are offering fresh fruits and vegetables every day along with things like baked beans and other options.

"We go by USDA guidelines and a lot of people don't know that Arkansas is actually stricter than those," Byrd said. "As part of this association and other organizations we know what is coming and how to prepare our districts for those changes."

Both said they are looking forward to this year.

"I would like for my school district and Tiffany would like for hers to know how much we appreciate them for allowing us to do this because it is volunteer," Byrd said. "We appreciate them for standing behind us and supporting us so we can do this. It does require a lot of time away from the office and kitchen. It is nice that they allow us this and we are able to bring back a lot of knowledge."