This is part 2 of our second task force meeting on school lunch reform in the San Rafael City Schools.

I’ll start this post with an apology.  It isn’t going to be funny.  Not even a little bit.  And that makes me sad.

Given the horrible financial state-of-affairs in our local school district, it is hard to believe that they are about to spend $300,000 on a renovation of our central kitchen.  Apparently the money came from some equipment grants, stimulus funds, the high school district (the kitchen is on the high school campus), and from capital improvement funds.  And before you get the wrong idea –this is not money that could otherwise be spent on staffing or school supplies.

San Rafael High School, photo by amarc57 on flickr

The central kitchen is where all food deliveries are made, stored and prepared for distribution to the local schools.  It is not meant to be a commercial kitchen, and is not approved by the health department as such.  What does that mean? It means that unlike the schools in Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, there aren’t lunch ladies cooking meals that will served hot to students.  It is mostly a staging ground for organization, storage and delivery.  (Oh yeah – they also heat foods there, but sadly they are heating foods in their plastic packaging at the moment.  Ick.  That’s on the agenda for our next meeting.)  Currently, they are over capacity and do not have adequate space to store food.  All of that is supposed to change after the renovation, which is going out to bid on April 12, 2010.

Aside from additional storage, what does the renovation have to do with you?  And what might it mean for our neighboring school districts?  Well, let me see if I can get it straight and explain to you what I (barely) understand.

When a school district has a central kitchen, they are prohibited by law from getting their food service from outside providers.  Historically, the San Rafael City Schools (along with Novato and Tam High) have always had their own central kitchen.    Smaller school districts, such as Mill Valley and Ross Valley, typically don’t have their own kitchen facilities or the ability to prepare food.  Therefore they are required to ask the Central Kitchens in their area (or any other educational agency or public school entity) if they can provide service. However, because we have been over capacity, our school district has always declined.

The result? These smaller school districts have been able to get food from whomever they wish.  Keep in mind – most of these smaller districts are in very affluent areas, and do not participate in the National School Lunch program (which funds free/reduced lunches to low-income students.)  Any kids who should get free lunches have the cost of their meals subsidized by the other students.  In our district, however, over ½ of our student population qualifies for free and reduced lunch.  Consequently, we have to follow all of the federal regulations for our food service program.

Once we renovate our central kitchen and have more space, we may be able and willing to take on new contracts with these smaller districts.  They are required to ask annually.  Currently, this scares me a little (on behalf of those other schools, who are happy with their current food providers.)  Unless we can get our food to where we want (and need) it to be, I hope that our district is not willing to provide this service to them.

Our facilities director says that with our help, we might meet their goal of making San Rafael the shining star of food service industry.  It’s a lofty goal – but if we can get there, then I wouldn’t cringe anymore at the thought of sharing our food with other schools in the county.

In what might otherwise be a uber-dreary post, I have to share a silver lining on this food service cloud…

Novato is working with High Tech Burrito to provide lunches one day a week.  In this case, High Tech Burrito is acting as a “distributor” of the food, and all sales are going through the school’s food service program.  (There are rules that ban competitive food sales during the school day – so if you can’t beat them, join them!).  Elena, our food service director, says she is watching them to see if the program is sustainable.  If it is successful, we may be able to rest easy next year, knowing that one day a week our kids will be offered excellent burritos made from real ingredients!

Next meeting: Thursday April 29

Check out these posts that document our school lunch reform efforts:

• http://whatscookingblog.com/2010/03/27/school-lunch-reform-2nd-meeting/
• http://whatscookingblog.com/2010/03/05/san-rafael-school-district-task-force-on-school-lunch-1/
• http://whatscookingblog.com/2010/02/11/changing-school-lunches-its-not-an-option/