I’m Jeffrey Boyce, and it is November 28, 2023. I’m here in Okolona, Mississippi. I’m doing a zoom interview with Dan Sharp in Grand Junction, Colorado. Welcome Dan, and thanks for taking the time to talk with me today.
Dan Sharp: Happy to join.
Jeffrey Boyce: Could we begin today by you telling me a little bit about yourself, where you were born and where you grew up?
Dan Sharp: Yeah, I actually grew up in Denver, Colorado. My name is Dan Sharp. And II grew up actually in the restaurant industry. I worked about 25 years in restaurants, resorts and hotels. And then I transitioned to the
nutrition world about 16-17 years ago.
Jeffrey Boyce: Okay, well, before we get into your career, tell me a little bit about your early days. Where did you go to school?
Dan Sharp: I was actually here in Grand Junction, Colorado. I went to school at the local university here called Mesa State back then, and I did my bachelor’s work here in this community and then went on to a night school education.
Jeffrey Boyce: Before that, what about your elementary, junior high, high school education?
Dan Sharp: I went to elementary school in Denver, Colorado, in one of the larger districts there and then I went to middle, junior high back then, and then I moved to Grand Junction, here in the western part of the state, and I went to high school here. All of them had lunch programs. If they did have breakfast, I don’t remember that. I thought that was pretty cool and unique when I started the work here for Mesa County School District, that we did offer breakfast. As a parent I was excited to find out that breakfast was available for my kids.
Jeffrey Boyce: Do you remember any of your favorite menu items when you were going to school as a young student.
Dan Sharp: Yeah, I think my favorite was the pigs in the blanket. It came in a fresh baked roll, and I remember taking the ketchup squeeze bottle, and you could stick it down into the middle of it to get your ketchup on the inside of it along with the mustard.
Jeffrey Boyce: So after that you went on to college then. Tell me a little bit about that. Where’d you go and what did you study?
Dan Sharp: I studied mostly business. I originally was looking at accounting, and then I I was good at accounting, but I didn’t like accounting, but more of a people person. So I wanted to be out working with staff at the time. I was also working in a hotel at night. That’s kind of my job to get me through college, and I like the environment. I like the people part of the hospitality and service industries. And and that’s where I ended up going. I was into hotels and resorts.
Jeffrey Boyce: I think you said for about 25 years?
Dan Sharp: Yeah, yeah, just about 25 total years. Yeah.
Jeffrey Boyce: Well, then, tell me about how you transitioned into nutriition. Was there someone who mentored or encouraged you?
Dan Sharp: Yeah, it was. Actually, I credit my wife. She’s the purchasing director in the school district, and she knew my background in resorts and hotels, and pretty much with a lot of food background. They were looking to hire a nutrition director that had a lot of business background. And so that’s how that connection got made. I was introduced, and then had the interview for the position, and thankfully was selected.
Jeffrey Boyce: What positions have you held? Did you start out as a director?
Dan Sharp: Yeah, I did. I started out as director because they needed someone in that role that was gonna right size the budget. They were losing about a million a year at that time. And because of my accounting background and management background I was able to come in and help right size the budget staffing levels. We had that corrected within 3 years. But what was unique is, I had no idea
the other components of the position, what I was getting into, and I was excited to learn and see that kids were my customers now, and I was excited to see the need that nutrition programs fill with hunger and nutrition needs.
Jeffrey Boyce: Is there anything unique in your state regarding the child nutrition programs?
Dan Sharp: Yeah, I think very much so. Colorado was the third state in the United States to put through legislation a year ago that authorized healthy school meals for all kids, and that was a pretty significant victory for our state in a number of ways, one of which is the fact that the way that the bill was written, it’s not gonna interfere with other budget departments or requirements in the state. And it’s actually funded separately through household incomes that are greater than $300,000 a year. So just so I’m clear, in Colorado there’s no charge for the school nutrition lunches. That’s correct. We still maximize the part of the legislation. Well, let me back up for a step. You know, during Covid one of the things that I noticed as a school nutrition director, and other directors and staff
see this play out every day. There’s a stigma associated with school meals prior to Covid, because of the fact that kids were in a rank system based on free eligibility or reduced eligibility. Parents had to apply to be able to receive if they had lower income for their kids to receive meals. And so during Covid, what we discovered is that more kids from these families would eat because of the fact that it was free for all kids, by doing universal meals across the board, like we did in all programs across the country. It was amazing to watch. We fed 25 to 30% more students per day because of that, because the stigma was removedNo longer did a family have to apply to get eligibility or approval for their kids to have free meals. So I and a handful of other people in the State of Colorado put together a coalition, and we went and spoke to the Senate, to the House. We were able to get it on the ballot.
And thank God, it got voted in by the State of Colorado to where this year is the first year of our implementation where that stigma is gone, and it’s so neat to watch. Now, I don’t see the kids that are sitting there at the tables not eating, and when you ask them why they’re not eating, they’re not gonna tell you. Now they’re eating. Now they’re going up and getting fed. And of course I could speak to the fact of how important that is for their learning, but also important for their health and their well being. That’s amazing.
Jeffrey Boyce: What’s your participation right now?
Dan Sharp: Yeah, we’re right now hovering around 65% out of our 100 or out of our 20,000 students that are enrolled here in Mesa County prior to universal meals, getting both in at the state, we were only feeding about 45%.
Jeffrey Boyce: What’s a typical day like for you these days?
Dan Sharp: Yeah. Well, it always starts out first thing is meeting with my core team at the main office to look at what our staffing needs are for today, because this is the first meal. Since Covid, we’re still filling unfilled positions. So our main concern is where do we need to go fill in and help at the schools that are short staff? Then after that, once we’ve met those needs, it’s looking at the other operation needs. They’re still dealing with supply issues, supply chain issues that are still going on. Price increases for food. So yeah, a lot of it is administrative. But a lot of it is being able to come in and help fill out and serve at the school is one of the biggest challenges you face.
Jeffrey Boyce: I think you said you’ve been doing this for 16 years.
Dan Sharp: Yeah, I have. That’s been, probably one of the biggest challenges was when we shifted back and 10 years ago in 2013 from a process for program that was just primarily heat and serve where we would buy processed food like chicken nuggets. And then we shifted that to go scratch cooking. We applied for and received a lot of grant money, and that was successful. We received over close to 2 million dollars to retrofit all of our 40 school kitchens to be able to do their own scratch cooking each day, and that also entailed a pretty big systemic change with training and teaching our staff how to cook from scratch. But that was a big shift, and it was a great shift. Because now kids are getting higher quality food and higher quality locally sourced produce off of our daily salads.
Jeffrey Boyce: How difficult has it been to find people who actually can do scratch cooking?
Dan Sharp: Yeah, you know, actually there’s a lot. We found that a lot of our parents that work in our program, they had kids themselves, and they actually loved the fact that we made the switch, even though it’s harder. They love the fact that we’re cooking from scratch at every school every day. And so that’s actually turned into an attraction to working in our school meal program.
Jeffrey Boyce: How do you come up with the recipes? Are there sources that are USDA approved for reimbursement for the scratch menu?
Dan Sharp: Great question. Yeah. There’s a lot of different sources. The United States Department of Agriculture. They have some great links that we go to and look at their recipes. Also Boulder Colorado, which is really the nexus scratch cooking throughout the country started there, and we work quite well with that group formally. They’re actually the ones that helped us make the transition to our scratch cooking, and they also brought with them recipes, and then also did the training with our staff.
Jeffrey Boyce: How difficult is staffing? You mentioned that with Covid. But I’m assuming that going to scratch cooking would make it even more difficult to staff.
It is. It’s a part time program. Typically most staff only work during the school year, 170 days a year versus most people work year round jobs 260 days. And so that is probably the biggest challenge we have is that it’s really part time work. But it’s worthwhile. So with a lot of our recruitment, marketing is based on the fact that this is very worthwhile work in your community. But they also receive retirement. That’s good.
Jeffrey Boyce: Do you have any memorable stories about any of these transitions or people you’ve worked with.
Dan Sharp: Well, I think the most memorable would be when I first started coming from a 4 Star 4 Diamond hotel resort background. You know you have these preconceived notions about what school meals was about, and I have to admit II have a much deeper respect for families and the kids where they come from, and that we’re feeding one out of 3 kids a day that come from families that are dealing with poverty. And I think that’s the thing that hit me hardest was knowing that we’re not just a nutrition program, but finding out that we’re also a hunger program, and how important that was for these kids to have that part of their day. Knowing that they have a reliable food source for them, even if they don’t have that elsewhere. So that was probably the biggest impact for me was seeing the social benefits of what school meal programs can do.
Jeffrey Boyce: What would you say has been your most significant contribution to child nutrition so far?
Dan Sharp: Above all, it would have to be the Healthiest School Meals for All legislation in Colorado. I think all the work that I was a blessing to be a part of here in this county, in Colorado was to get that legislation approved, and to get it approved at the way that we did it to be funded the manner I told you, but also the fact that it’s a done deal. This is permanent in the State of Colorado, where now all kids, all families will benefit, and they don’t have to worry about that part of their monthly budget to fund their kids’ meals. They don’t have to worry about filling out an application to make sure their kids are fed at school. And that to me is a legacy. And I credit my team and the staff I work with. Yeah, I think, the best advice that I received and that I always try to do every day is to be out in schools on a regular basis, so I can really see and know what’s going on and how best to support and serve the team of people that we call our culinary associates and managers, really do the hard work everyday all day long.
And really it’s difficult work to feed 300-400 kids in a short amount of time, and they do a great job. So my advice is listen every day, get up near schools, go and find opportunities to know how to serve and support your team.
Jeffrey Boyce: Anything else you’d like to add?
Dan Sharp: Well, that was always our vision was to get universal meals and that was the blessing or the silver lining of Covid, is that it showed us in all school programs across the country. It showed us the need. It showed us the stigma. It showed us the need, and that fueled this transition for our state.
Jeffrey Boyce: Well, thanks so much for the time, and send me that release form, and I will get to transcribing this.
