Sponsor Spotlight: Deborah Gillison-Wilson with Georgia Nutritional Services
Sponsor of Adult Care Centers, At-Risk Afterschool, Child Care Centers, Family Child Care Homes, and SFSP
August 6, 2024
Deborah Gillison-Wilson is the Founder and Executive Director of Georgia Nutritional Services (GANSI) which is a sponsoring organization of CACFP and SFSP across Georgia. They sponsor 165 child care centers, 32 family child care homes, 35 At-Risk Afterschool programs, 2 Adult day care centers, and around 17 SFSP sites serving a total of 320,852.
Deborah started her career with CACFP in 1996 when she co-founded an organization to be an administrative sponsor of unaffiliated centers. As she learned about the CACFP, it became a part of her lifestyle. She started serving meals to her own children that met the meal pattern, which became a normal practice in her day-to-day life. Deborah believes the CACFP enriched her family’s lifestyle and improved their eating habits – especially when it came to introducing foods outside of their culture. Her children, who are now adults, incorporate healthy practices with their own families.
Georgia Nutritional Services sees their clients as their extended family. In the process of being their sponsor, GANSI has formed relationships with the providers they work with. They work to ensure open communication between themselves and the providers that goes both ways. GANSI strives to keep their providers as updated as possible on new policies, and on the other hand, they expect their providers to share with them when they don’t understand part of the program or need help.
“As a sponsoring organization, even if you are a client, you need to know what I know. I need to know what you know or don’t know so I can assist you as a sponsoring organization. So it’s just keeping everybody in tune. I look at us as a family unit, not so much as they are GANSI’s client. They come on board as clients, but as we work together and we stay loyal to each other, that means that we become a unit. We’ve formed a relationship in the process.”
Within their organization, GANSI does cross-training which allows all of their staff the chance to go out into the field and meet with clients. This training has proven to make the communication between the staff, GANSI, and providers better. Now everyone is able to put a face to the name that they may talk to over the phone or email with frequently. This also helps to strengthen the familiarity and relationship between providers and staff, so they feel more comfortable whenever it is time for a review.
GANSI has adapted the format of their annual trainings to make sure that providers get as much out of the process as possible. This past year they implemented a workshop setup where providers don’t just hear new information, but they also learn to apply it. With this method, providers are able to go back to their program with a better understanding of what is expected of them.
“What we did in our annual training this past year was hands on workshops. Having hands on experience and providing those tools and going through scenarios gave them a better insight into each process within the requirements of the program. GANSI clients enjoyed that, our staff enjoyed that, and it just brought everything together. I’m not just telling it to you, you’re actually seeing it and working the process. When you go back to your program you have a better idea of what’s expected of you as you work CACFP.”
Identifying problems early and providing resources to their providers is another best practice for GANSI. Whenever they identify an area of concern that multiple providers are struggling with, they don’t wait for annual training, they have a webinar on the topic soon after. Their goal is to fix problems early so they don’t lead to suspension or termination of providers from the program. Not only do they do this in the best interest of the providers, but also with the understanding that when a provider is removed from the program their community also loses access to nutritious meals.
Knowing that children are being served nutritious meals is Deborah’s motivation to continue working in the CACFP. Without the CACFP, Deborah doesn’t think that the children would receive the quality of meals that they are receiving through the food program. After working in the CACFP for many years, Deborah also recognizes that there are many providers out there who don’t know about the CACFP, and therefore aren’t accessing the program.
“I feel like if I’m not in this space, I don’t know if the children are getting fed, even though I know there are other sponsors and organizations out there that are doing the same thing. But, for me I don’t know that they’re getting served those nutritious meals. I know that a provider may not know that we are here and that they have access to the federal funding. So I feel like if I’m not here, meals aren’t being served.”
The main goal for GANSI in the next year is to increase awareness of the CACFP in their community.
In Georgia, Deborah has been a sponsor of CACFP since 1996.