THE Jamaica Netball Association (JNA) is focused on ensuring that national netball players get the proper nutrition that they need to make it to the top of their game, says President Marva Bernard.

The Sunshine Girls and Under-21 players train three days a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and are joined on Saturday mornings by the players in the Scotiabank Development Squad (Under-13) and the Under-16 squad and every girl is given a balanced meal — be it dinner or breakfast — each day of training.

The programme feeds between 35 and 40 girls during the week, and as many as 75 get breakfast on Saturday mornings.

“We recognise the link between food and performance, so we had consultations with a nutritionist and developed a meal plan,” Bernard said.

“We have to ensure they get a balanced meal after a rigorous training.”

Meals are prepared at the netball house — the Sunshine Chalet — to ensure that nutritional standards are met and the variations in diet among the players mean several options have to be prepared for each meal.

However, the JNA is now starting to feel the pinch of the increasing cost of feeding players, even as the national team strives to be world number one.

For the months of January and February 2013, the association’s bill to feed players in the Under-16, Under-21, and senior squads was just over $550,000.

That cost included over $150,000 on ground provisions; $250,000 at the wholesale and supermarket, and $155,000 on meat.

The problem has been compounded by the fact that the association does not have a food sponsor at the moment.

“With no sponsorship and with the high prices for foodstuff, we have to be creative to cope,” Property, Facilities and Equipment Manager Elsie Shaw said.

Shaw, who is also team manager with responsibility for the preparation of the meals for the teams, explained that since Hurricane Sandy things have worsened with an increase in the price of ground provisions, especially yams and green bananas.

In 2011, Best Dressed Foods came on board as the national team’s protein sponsor, but with the other needs, Bernard is now in the process of seeking a food sponsor.

So far she has had no luck.

However, the players are never sent home or to bed hungry. “We try to give them something to eat, even if it is in smaller portions,” Shaw said.

Senior Sunshine Girl Malysha Kelly, who is in the final year of a Bachelor of Science degree in International Relations at the University of the West Indies, says eating a balanced meal after training is essential.

“I think the meal programme is helpful. As an athlete it helps to guide your nutrition and makes sure you eat properly. For people like me who go to school, after training it would be very rigorous to go home and cook, so it helps for time management and it gives us variety in our diet as well.”

Kelly added that while some of her fellow players may not talk about their own experiences, being able to eat a balanced meal away from home is important.

“Most of us are in school, so we eat a good lunch, but probably not a good dinner, so it helps. Most of us college students are on our own, so we would have to go home and cook,” she said.

It is for the welfare of Malysha Kelly and the rest of the players that Shaw says “no matter what we have to do, we have to keep the JNA’s player-feeding programme going”.