Marilyn Chrisman is an Arkansas food service director, having spent her entire forty-one year career working in child nutrition.
JB: I’m Jeffrey Boyce, and it is April 22, 2021. I’m here in Okolona, Mississippi, today and I’m speaking with Marilyn Chrisman, who is in Hartman, Arkansas. Welcome Marilyn, and thanks for taking the time to talk with me today.
MC: I’m glad to be here.
JB: Well, could we begin today by you telling me a little bit about yourself, where you were born, where you grew up?
MC: Okay, I was born in Parsons, Kansas, and my dad worked for Swift and Company, so we traveled to different states. I lived in Virginia, then Douglas, Georgia, then move to Clarksville, Arkansas, and that’s where I’ve stayed.
JB: And what is SWIFT? Is that a food company?
MC: It’s a poultry plant.
JB: Oh OK, OK. So where did you go to school then, all those different places?
MC: No. I went to elementary in Douglas, Georgia, and then we moved to Clarksville, Arkansas, and that’s where I continued my education.
JB: Okay, well, what are your earliest recollections of child nutrition programs? Was there a school lunch or breakfast program when you were in school.
MC: Oh yes, there was.
JB: And did you participate?
MC: Yes, I think back then, you know, moms didn’t send a lunch that much. When you were at home you ate whatever mom cooked, so yeah, we all participated.
JB: Do you remember what some of your favorite menu items were?
MC: Definitely, that would have been hot rolls.
JB: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that. I could smell those and be back in my elementary school cafeteria.
MC: Oh yeah, with the good honey they had. We loved it.
JB: Oh okay, I don’t think we ever had honey. Did you participate all through school?
MC: Yes.
JB: And then, after that, what did you do?
MC: Okay. Well, I didn’t graduate. I only went to the 11th grade, and then I got my GED, and then I went to Arkansas Tech for one year, and then I just started working at the school after that.
JB: Okay, how did you get involved with child nutrition then?
MC: Well, I was working as a teacher’s aide and my best friend’s mother worked as the manager at the lunch room and she said, asked me if I’d like to start working there. They had a job opening and so I did, and stayed with it for forty-one years, so I guess I liked it, huh?
JB: So the rest, they say, is history?
MC: Right.
JB: Well, was there someone, a mentor maybe, that helped guide you through your career?
MC: Yes, that would have been Mrs. Warren (Granny). She was the reason I wanted to be in food service, because she was such a good cook and all the kids loved her. Mrs. Warren never said a bad word about no one. Another person who I admired for her dedication to school food service was my State Area Specialist, Rita Stitt. She was an inspiration to all who worked with her.
JB: Well tell me about the early days and tell me about the positions you’ve held. You started out as?
MC: A cook. I just went up the ladder; I was a cook and then a manager and now a director, and I think that kind of helps to go up the ladder like that, because you know how each person feels in that position, you know how it was to be a cook and what to expect and what you like, and so, yep, that’s sort of how it went.
JB: Ok. Are you active in the state association there in Arkansas?
MC: Yes, I am. I served on our State board for several years, Northwest District Director, Nominating Chair.
JB: Was that helpful in guiding you through your career.
MC: Oh absolutely yes, I loved it; went to the national conferences, state conferences. And they all give you a lot of encouragement and you know they make you feel good about your job, and I think that that’s a lot of help.
JB: I hear networking as a big part of it.
MC: Oh, it definitely is. It’s great because if you go to all the state conferences you meet all the directors in your state and then, if you have questions, can ask how they do things in their school district. Yes, that is very helpful.
JB: Is there anything unique about Arkansas regarding the federal child nutrition programs?
MC: Well, yes, the State Department, they’re very helpful. I call them all the time, if I ever have a question. I can call and there they want to help you because they want you to succeed and they’re the best. I haven’t worked for any other states, but I just feel like they have to be the best. They’re so helpful.
JB: What’s a typical day like for you, or is there such a thing as a typical day.
MC: Well, okay, a typical day back in 1980 when I started would have been more like we come in and peel a 50-pound bag of potatoes or make homemade hamburger buns, and now moving to modern times you can buy so many good products out there. You buy more products now than we used to. Everything was homemade and now there’s just a lot of good products on the market. You can buy potatoes that are frozen or canned that are very good. There’s a lot more rules and regulations that takes up more of your time.
JB: Do you do any scratch cooking at all anymore.
MC: Oh yes, we do. We still make meatloaf. We just don’t make our hamburger buns homemade.
MC: And if I make Stromboli we buy the dough, where used to you’d make that. We don’t make as many cobblers or sweets, because, you know, you have to watch calories.
JB: What about the rolls, are there any of those?
MC: Oh yeah, we still make homemade rolls.
JB: That’s good to know. What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced?
MC: The new rules and regulations; that would be your biggest challenge.
JB: Tell me how they’ve changed over the years.
MC: Okay well back in the 80s, it would have been real simple. You had three fourths cup of fruit or vegetable and two ounces of meat and so many breads a week. And now it’s like a cup of vegetables, a cup of fruit, but then, when you go to that vegetable is going to be so many red and orange, so many dark green. So many calories, watch the salt content. It’s just gotten to where there’s a lot more paperwork to it.
JB: A lot more specific it sounds like.
MC: Right.
JB: So that’s some of the changes you’ve seen during your career. Are there any other major changes that you can think of during your career?
MC: Not really that I can’t think of; that’s mainly the ones.
JB: What about Covid in the last year? Has that impacted you?
MC: Definitely yes. Now we package everything, and we really don’t see the children, and that’s the sad part to me. We package up their food, and we send it out, and they come by and get it. Sometimes we take some of it to classrooms. So that has been a big change. But we’re looking forward to that being gone and getting to see kids again.
JB: Hopefully, hopefully. Did the students ever leave class or did they stay in school the whole time?
MC: During Covid?
JB: Right.
MC: Yes, they would come through the lunch line and at the high school they come through the lunch line and pick up their lunch that we have prepackaged. And then they would take it to different rooms. They could take it to their classroom. They had different destinations where they’d go. Now at the elementary we would take it to their classrooms for breakfast, and then at lunch they came to sit down in the lunchroom or wherever they were supposed to be, and the teacher’s aide would bring it to them.
JB: But the kids stayed in school the whole time, then?
MC: Oh yes.
JB: Because in a lot of places they went home.
MC: We are lucky in Arkansas. They could go virtual if you wanted to.
JB: A lot of people around here went virtual for quite some time and people would go out in like vans and things and delivered lunches.
MC: Okay, at the beginning, that would have been last year. We did do that when it really first started. We would take the buses to the bus stop, and we would have their package lunch, and they would get it for a week at a time.
JB: Okay wow. That must have taken a lot of planning and organization to do it a week at a time.
MC: It did. We didn’t have that many. We are a small district, but it was still worth it for the ones that got it I’m sure.
JB: How many schools do you have in your district?
MC: Two.
JB: Just two schools? Okay, so you serve about how many students.
MC: We serve about 500.
JB: Well that’s not too small. What would you say has been your most significant contribution to the field over those 41 years?
MC: Oh let’s see. I would say, getting the Provision 2. That was back in 2005. We’ve got Provision 2 in our school district, and that means all kids eat free. We have a lot of free and reduced kids in this area. That helped the parents tremendously, not to have to worry about the cost.
JB: And all the paperwork. Do you have any memorable stories about kids you’ve served or people you’ve worked with over the years?
MC: With the ladies I’ve worked with, we’ve attended several National Conferences and just had a good time and you really get to know people that you work with better when you spend time with them like that. And the kids, of course, when they come back and ask for a recipe that you had, something you cooked that they liked in school. And then their kids also come to school here now. I’ll see one of the kids out there and I’m saying, “That looks like so and so.” Yes, that was his dad or whatever. So that’s been fun.
JB: When you spend that long working, I guess you see multiple generations coming through.
MC: That’s true.
JB: What advice would you give someone who was considering child nutrition as a profession today?
MC: If they wanted to get into child nutrition I would say, “If you love kids and you love to cook you’re in the right profession right there and you’ll enjoy it. Just follow the rules and it’ll make your life a lot easier. Go by what the State Department wants you to do at all times.”
JB: Anything else you’d like to add today.
MC: I don’t really know. I think I pretty much covered it.
JB: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today.
MC: I enjoyed it. Thank you very much.
