CHRIS DERICO, PRESIDENT, SCHOOL NUTRITION ASSOCIATION (SNA)

Last month, the School Nutrition Association (SNA) introduced Chris Derico, SNS, as the association’s president for the 2023-24 school year.

Derico is also the Child Nutrition Director for Barbour County Schools in Philippi, West Virginia. He will now be representing SNA’s 50,000 school nutrition professional members nationwide.

Throughout his career, Derico has worked as an educator, administrator and child nutrition director, advocating on the importance of school meals to students’ academic success and wellness. He credits many of his leadership and communications skills to his side career as a high school basketball referee and NCAA basketball official.

With the new school year launching later this month, Total Food Service sought out Derico to share his vision for where K-12 school foodservice is headed.

For those who don’t know you, can you share a little bit about your background?

First of all, I am an educator. I got a teaching degree and taught middle school math. I always knew I was going to go into administration. My father was an educator, school principal and central office administrator for many years, and I was following his footsteps.

And where did you grow up? Where are you from?

I am from almost where I’m at now, Weston, West Virginia. That was in the school district of Lewis County. And that is where I taught. I did go to a neighboring district as an assistant principal for three years, and was able to go back home after that at my high school where I graduated from. And was the assistant principal there for five years.

What punishment came about that you had to go into food service? (I’m joking)

Of course. Well, after five years, the Child Nutrition Director for our district was retiring. I always knew I wanted to be in the central office in some capacity, so when that opportunity came up, I seized it. I spent 17 years in Lewis County in the central office. Obviously, my responsibilities grew over those 17 years. It did start off just child nutrition, and evolved into almost all aspects of education, from curriculum at the secondary level, to a little bit of technology, to public relations, probably personnel a little bit. My hands were into a lot of different things throughout the years there. It’s a relatively small district, when I first started in Child Nutrition, it was probably just a little under 3000 students at seven or eight schools. And before I left there, we closed a couple of schools. So, I finished with 4 elementary 1, middle 1 high schools, and around probably a little under 2800 students when I left there.

You know what’s interesting, I call it school food and you call it Child Nutrition. There’s a big difference in those two names.

Well, it’s funny, when I was young, probably going to school, we always used to call it a hot lunch. And that could have been referenced to breakfast or lunch, but we sort of just always called it a hot lunch. Through time, that term has evolved into if you’re talking about the whole program.

As you look at a snapshot, where do you see Child Nutrition today? What role does it play in education? What role does it play in growing students? Talk a little bit about what your vision is.

I’m an advocate believer that child nutrition plays a key role in the education of students. And I think a lot of educators know that but often overlooked. Obviously, hungry students who are wondering where their next meal is coming from, or what time it’s occurring, are not prepared and ready to learn. So once again, that Breakfast program, that lunch program that schools offer is a key component to making sure students are ready to learn each and every day. I believe that as an educator, and I believe that as a child nutritionist.

Do you think the importance of it is often overlooked?

I think sometimes parents and the greater community don’t understand how important that is. I believe the educators know that, but they get sometimes tied up in teaching their curriculum, they do forget it and overlook it day to day if you know what I’m saying.

I do. They just assumed that it is kids acting like kids, and in fact, it’s human beings that haven’t been properly fed.

Here’s a little joke in our industry if it’s a joke, but when it comes to state testing time, then the principals and teachers are worried about how we’re going to feed breakfast to the kids. The other days of the week, they don’t ask about it. They know how important it is, they just don’t think about it.

When you left administration, and you moved into child nutrition, what was it that attracted you to Child Nutrition?

First of all, I’ve always had a personal interest in wellness. I’m an active person, running, bicycling, and obviously, nutrition goes into that, I just have that personal interest. But once I got into the field, from an education standpoint, I realized the impact I was having. And the impact not only on the students, but the people working in the child nutrition industry, how I could work with my cooks, give them some training opportunities for them to shine, and I actually try to give them some rewards for the work they do each and every day, because it’s not easy work.

How did your operation change during the pandemic? As we’re into this new normal, what did you take away from that that you’ve kept?

Flexibility, first of all, because we all have to be flexible. And obviously, we all responded at different times during the pandemic, just making sure there was food available for our students, and looking at different delivery methods and so forth. And of course, without going into old topics, food supply was an issue, it still is today, definitely is not as bad as it was during the pandemic. But there’s still a few challenges out there. Probably the continued on page 66 biggest challenge, and you see it in your own home is inflation. The cost of our food, our supplies, equipment and so forth has definitely went up. So that’s a concern for us and our school districts. But once again, I think the focus is making sure we’re making food available for all of our students every day, I go back, it’s important for the educational component, but it’s also just important that we take care of our kids throughout West Virginia and throughout the country.

What got you involved with SNA? What led to that?

I should say, I’m aware that every profession has an organization. I’ll be honest with you, the first week of the job, I Googled it, found it, joined because I always believed in associations, I just thought it was the right thing to do. And then the leadership probably came because a colleague reached out to me and said, hey, it’s time for you to get involved, time for you to step up a little bit. And obviously, it started off with what I would call a minor role, and as you can see, that role has increased through time, and as the President of the National Association now. I’ll be honest with you, at my age, and career and so forth, I think it’s important that I give back. I’ve always thought it was important to help others. And I feel this is a way in which I can help others.

As you look at your agenda as you take over the reins of the SNA, what’s on that agenda?

First of all, a personal thing is making sure that our people, people that work in the child nutrition business gets the recognition they deserve for what they do for educating our students. We’ve already spoken about that, but that’s just very important to me. Obviously, something the School Nutrition Association has said for a long time, and we thought during the pandemic, we would love to somehow have free meals for all students. We see a lot of velocity with this, a lot of states are doing some laws that are actually somehow providing free meals within their own states. And if the federal government could somehow do that for us someday, we would love it.

In the years that you’ve been doing this, have you been able to see a move away from pizza, hamburgers and fries, in terms of getting kids interested in other things?

Our focus and my focus are two things. One, making sure there’s fresh fruits and vegetables available, whether that’s in a fruit and vegetable bar, or maybe something more of a salad bar, just making sure that if there’s pizza being offered today, there is all kinds of choices when it comes to vegetables and fruits, especially if it can be local, fruits and vegetables, it’s been a big push. And I’ve tried to push local.

The other thing I tried to do, I tried to showcase food that students maybe do not get at home, expose them to ethnic foods or just foods they might not be exposed to very much in their community here in North Central West Virginia.

Where are we with the CN programs that are out there right now? Any idea how that’s being dealt with? In other words, the regulations right now, are they fair with what’s out there right now? Are they livable? Where are we?

There’s a concern about the proposed regulations. There were some proposals put out back in the spring or a little before, comments were put out, the comment period was even extended. And there’s some concerns about the sugar regulations and how that would affect us. And probably the biggest concern is the sodium. Sometimes we feel we’re trying to make up for maybe the excess sodium students receive at home is all being made up into school meals, and that’s a tough pill to swallow. If we could have a little more flexibility with that sodium regulations, it sure would help us.

Is there still a viable subsidy program in terms of commodities? And what would you like to see as an association in terms of where that hits?

Well, once again, when it comes to commodities, West Virginia is a little unique because we do a state contract and I don’t have to do a whole lot with it. We fully support commodities and so forth. Sometimes the regulations that we have on obtaining those commodities, once again, gets into a little too much paperwork and hurdles to jump through. So, anything that would relax those regulations to make it better. And let’s face it, those commodities, that program began so we can help the local farmers, farmers throughout this country. And I think we are all for that, because that’s an important component here.

As an industry, you were Farm to Table or local to table long before it became a sexy topic.

That is correct. I love using my local farmers or even what I call my regional farmers. And of course, I’m in West Virginia, so my growing season is a little bit less than in the southern states. But when I can, I take advantage of some local farmers. And I think it’s good for my economy here locally to help out my neighbor so to speak, if that makes sense.

Of course, it does. Do schools have an obligation to lead the fight against obesity, or does this have to happen at home? Or do you have to have help at home?

How I answer that question, it goes back to what I fully believe as an ed- continued on page 119