First things first, if you work in FBS American football or basketball this article is not for you. Same thing applies for you if you work in professional sport. You have enough money that nutrition is not an issue for you. Go ahead enjoying all that food for your athletes (and yourself). For the rest of us this is for you.
Just for the record I have seen the good and the bad of nutrition in team sport. When I was at Maryland the team had it’s own cafeteria in the football building. This was great as guys could finish training or practice and be able to eat together. When I was at Iowa there was not a cafeteria, but there was a large multipurpose room where food was catered in. Same premise as my time at Maryland. Guys would finish training and be able to eat a meal together. The difference between Iowa and Maryland was the fuel zone and snacks. The fuel zone at Iowa you could live out of and not need training table. That was also multiple years ago, so I assume both schools are on par with each other now. But you get the point, neither team’s athletes were hurting for food.
I leave that situation and arrive at Towson where there is no training table. All the athletes have is a shake in the weight room and the option to go to a fuel zone. The “issue” with those snacks was the fact that they were not the most healthy option. Sure there was some good choices. But some of the choices were goldfish, or granola bars. Better than nothing, yes. But truly healthy and what the athletes needed? No.
Then came dining hall meals. All athletes on scholarship had a meal plan they would be able to select. Athletes could chose between 19, 14, or 7 meal plan. They could also choose to buy points and each time they swiped a meal it would be points from their card. Well, we practied and lifted in the mornings at Towson. This meant that the players would not have the ability to eat breakfast (we had the team get the 14 or the 19 meal plan). Rather than having the athletes miss out on the meal - we did some math.
We added up how many players on the team had this number meal plans, took that number and multiplied it by the 14 or 19 meal plan price. We then showed the dining services folks how much money the team was providing them each semester and year. Then showed them how many meals we were missing out because of the time we practiced. Rather than having our athletes decline a meal plan option (and get the money to them to cook on their own) we worked together on a price per meal for the breakfast. We then built out a meal that would be brought outside of the locker room for the players to take after practice.
The meal was a different type of breakfast sandwich, yogurt parfait, fruit, and milk. Is this also “ideal”? Nope. Was it a step in the right direction? Absolutely. And it was no extra cost to the team and department. Win for the athletes with food. Win for the dining hall with the money still coming in. Win for the team with no extra expense and their athletes are fed. Win for the administration because they can show this collaboration. Did all of this happen flawlessly? Nope. There were hiccups along the way - but we still were able to get this done. Now it did take a good amount of time planning all this out for the 2019 season. So if you want this to happen for next season - start the conversations now.
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