While researching school food programs in Santa Cruz County for the sustainable school pitch, one district in particular — Santa Cruz City Schools — immediately stood out for being in a tumultuous time of change.
In the past year alone, the district has undergone an extensive review of the food services department, a superintendent change, and the resignation of the current food services director, Denise McGregor, after her job description was changed last month to include a background in nutrition and culinary arts.
Now the district’s Wellness Committee has its eyes set on overhauling the cafeteria program, starting with the hiring of Revolution Foods, an Oakland-based company dedicated to sustainable and nutritious meals, for a universal breakfast program at Gault Elementary and Branciforte Middle School as well as providing healthy lunch programs at these two schools along with Bay View, Delaveaga and Westlake elementary.
According to Wellness Committee Chair Cynthia Hawthorne, contracting with Revolution Foods is an attempt to move away from the heat-and-serve-processed-food model while the district gradually returns to a scratch-cooking system.
Food service workers prepare and package chicken burgers to be sent out to Pajaro Valley Unified School District cafeterias.
Such efforts have been prompted in part by the recommendations from an extensive review the district commissioned earlier this year. The review, which cost the district $30,000 for two consultants who worked on the assessment for four to six weeks, included several short-term goals from boosting leadership, to redrawing the wellness policy to menu reform.
The new wellness policy seeks to address the disconnect between what’s served in public schools versus trends in the larger community, according to Hawthorne. One of the policy’s guiding principles is “the promotion of family health, physical activity, good nutrition, sustainable agriculture and environmental restoration.”
“Schools are absolutely key in changing our national health crisis and providing the educational tools for students, families and communities to pave the pathway to wellness,” Hawthorne said.
The Current Heat-and-Serve Food Model
Like many districts, the Santa Cruz City Schools menu is comprised mostly of processed government commodities from the United States Department of Agriculture government surplus program, according to Beth Collins, one of the sustainable foods consultants who worked on the extensive departmental review that came out last January.
Hawthorne said that over the last eight years many districts across the nation have been lowering food costs to balance budgets, which have been plagued by cuts in recent years. As a result, food services departments have had to rely on lower-quality foods, like the D-level government commodities sent to U.S. schools and prisons.
USDA Commodity Chicken Patties, shipped to California from Gainesville, Georgia.
According to Hawthorne, the district even received beef from “downer cows” last year, which were the subject of a 143-million-pound-beef recall, the largest in U.S. History.
“[The government] needs to stop sending downer cows to school lunch programs and dumping the lowest quality products in school meals,” Hawthorne said. “We can do better than that.”
Additionally, the cost-cutting efforts of the school district have led to deconstructed facilities, which are more conducive to pre-packaged food.
“[The district] has non-approved facilities,” Collins said. “They no longer have anywhere for the kids to sit down and eat, the kitchens are in very poor condition, if you can even call them kitchens. You can only divest for so long, and they have been divesting for a long time.”
The Case for Revolution Foods
Considering these limitations, the district needs a healthier way to reheat and serve food before the facility upgrade needed for scratch cooking can take place. That’s where Revolution Foods comes in, says Hawthorne.
“What’s brilliant about Revolution Foods is the opportunity to reheat organic, healthy meals,” she said. “That’s not a fad; that’s a gift.”
Revolution Foods prides itself in providing children with access to healthy, fresh food, which is prepared daily at its Oakland-based kitchen and then shipped directly to participating Bay Area schools. The company’s food standards require organic and locally produced ingredients when possible, hormone and antibiotic-free meat and dairy, and the absence of high fructose corn syrup and trans fat.
Meals are packaged in plastic-free recyclable and compostable material, and the company works to collaborate with school districts to meet individual needs.
Quality food does come at a cost, however. Meals would increase an estimated $.75 for elementary students and $.50 for middle school students while the universal breakfast program would be free to all students.
The Hold Up
On Tuesday night, district trustees decided to wait on approving next year’s food plan until a new food services manager is hired and a financial impact report is conducted by the end of the month.
Opponents of the plan argue that the district can’t shoulder the additional costs amid the current budget crisis.
However, Hawthorne cited the $750,000 “Food for Needy Families” funds the district receives as evidence that there is money to pay for improved food. The money currently goes into the general fund and is paying for salaries instead of healthy food, she said.
“Yes, there would be more money going toward food, correct, hallelujah,” Hawthorne said. “Then we could provide better meals for our students.”
Increased participation — which is currently low — would also raise revenue.
Food service workers worry about possible mass layoffs due to the new structure of the food program, but trustees said deep cuts are not planned because employees could be retrained for new duties.
The community at large has had a mixed response.
Stephanie Raugust, Nutrition Coordinator at Pacific Elementary School District, who runs the “food lab” program which brings students into the kitchen to learn nutrition education as they prepare daily meals for students and staff, said she is wary of the private ownership of school food, and thinks the move is not addressing the real problem of deconstructed facilities and organizational support.
“You can’t get rid of the need for schools to have kitchens,” Raugust said. “[Revolution Foods] is like a bandaid that hides the real problem, a distraction by flashy packaging.”
Other school districts in the area are waiting to see how the revolution pans out.
“Maybe, it’ll turn out to be a good model that we’ll adopt later,” Cindi Black-Nicholson, Nutrition Services Director at the Live Oak School District said. “But we’ll let [Santa Cruz City Schools] try it out first.”
