Cove ISD nutrition director leads 36-county area

By WENDY SLEDD Special to Leader-Press Copperas Cove ISD Directorof Child Nutrition Melissa Bryan  has been elected as the Area 5 representative for the Texas Associationfor School Nutrition. Bryan has been a TASN member for nearly a decade and attending many trainings and conferences offered by the organization. She said she has found the information she obtained to have been such a learning and growing experience and the new position allows her to both learn more and offer her own proven  methods.“It allows me to share with other directors from  cross the state of  exas on what is working  or them as well assharing what is working for me,” Bryan said. “In the last several years, I see a lot of classes and trainings, but the excitement for child nutrition has  omehow been lost in   he guidelines and the paperwork.” Bryan represents 36 counties in Area 5 including Bell, Bosque, Brown, Coke, Coleman, Collin, Comanche, Concho, Coryell, Crockett, Dallas, Ellis, Falls,Fannin, Freestone, Grayson, Hamilton, Hill, Irion, Kaufman, Kimble, Lampasas, Limestone, Mason, McCulloch, McLennan, Menard, Mills, Navarro, Rockwall,Runnels, San  Saba, Schleicher, Sterling, Sutton and Tom Green. “I am choosing toserve to help get some  excitement back forchild nutrition for seasoned staff as well as build up some excitement for the new child nutrition employees,” she said. “Too many times you see staff attending training or conferences and being excited about a new idea or a new product and then coming back to their district and this excitement dissipates. I don’t want that. I want this excitement about the idea or product to be a jumping point for them to come back to their district or area and tell others  they work with about it.  “Being Area 5 representative will have me reaching out and having discussions, meetings and generating some useful ‘best practices’ for our district as well as the surrounding counties,” she said. “What one district experiences, good or bad, can be a learning tool for other districts. Recipe creations, useful nutri tional education, training techniques all are  used on a daily basis in child nutrition. TASN is also an advocate for Texas with the School  utrition Association and has a distinct voice o help influence some decisions on legislation that is recommended to USDA.” TASN was established in 1954. With nearly 6,000 members, it one of the largest state school nutrition associations in the nation.