0920_September Comstock's Magazine September 2020 | Page 58

FOOD
included no fewer than six lunch
options each day, featuring entrees
such as a Mediterranean wrap, chicken
Alfredo pasta, southwest chicken salad,
and a fruit and yogurt protein box.
There also was chili cheese nachos, a
bacon cheeseburger with Tater Tots and
Wild Mike’s Ultimate Pizza.
“I visited Hiram Johnson High
School, and I was just watching service
at lunch, and I literally got emotional,”
says Flores. “I was stunned how they just
will stand in line, these huge lines for
food. They love the food.” That day, students
were in line for the Chipotle-style
burrito bowls customized to order.
But they haven’t experienced the
same success at the district’s 60 elementary
schools. “We just hit a brick
wall when it came to the elementary
schools. We could not duplicate the
same menu there,” says Flores. “They
have tiny kitchens, and a school with
300 students (has) two staff members.
One’s there for six hours, the other’s
there for three hours.”
They have added fresh salad bars to
the elementary schools, featuring selections
such as fresh spinach, blueberries
and mangoes, says Nederveld.
The majority of the district’s meals
feature animal protein. Reimbursable
meals must meet the Dietary Guidelines
for Americans, which still recommend
dairy products, seafood, lean meats,
poultry and eggs, even though study after
study continues to show a correlation
between animal protein and diseases
such as cancer, obesity and heart disease.
Flores says the new Central Kitchen
will accommodate more vegetarian
— and vegan — options.
But selling meals, whatever they are,
determines the budget. Revenue from
federal and state reimbursements plus
income from meals purchased at full
price, funds the majority of SCUSD Nutrition
Services’ $30 million annual budget.
The department receives $3.67 from
the USDA for every free lunch served and
roughly 20 cents from the state of California
until funds run out, which may be
as early as February or March each year,
says Flores. Full price lunches bring in
Thomas Lucero, a former corporate chef
at two Sacramento restaurants, manages
the Sacramento City Unified School
District’s new Central Kitchen that will
have a staff of 30-40 full-time employees.
$2.75 at elementary schools and $3.25 at
the middle and high schools.
Since it receives no support from
the district’s general fund, Flores says
revenue must cover labor; benefits for
staff; supplies; refrigerated food trucks
(each costs $130,000); repairs for the
trucks; fuel; forklifts for the warehouse;
equipment and repairs for school kitchens;
miscellaneous operating expenses;
and a fee paid back to the district that
averages between $700,000 and $1
million annually to use the district’s
payroll processor, human resources and
accounting departments. Oh, and food.
“When everybody says, ‘Why
don’t they serve better lunches?’ Out
of that ($3.67), my budget for food is $1,”
says Flores.
But SCUSD Nutrition Services’
budget has remained in the black for
the last 16 years. Flores has maintained
that since 2008, because of the way she
purchases. According to a study by the
USDA released in April 2019, School
Nutrition and Meal Cost Study, the
majority of school nutrition programs
operate at a deficit.
Funds to build the Central Kitchen,
managed by Thomas Lucero, the former
corporate chef at local restaurants
Land Ocean and Sienna, came from
Measure R, approved by Sacramento
voters in 2012, granting $68 million
in bond funds to improve health and
safety for children in SCUSD, including
upgrading kitchen facilities for
improved nutrition.
Locally grown — and healthier
While the Central Kitchen marks
significant progress toward improved
school nutrition, success is also a
measure of whether the students enjoy
and consume the food. That’s where the
National Farm to School Network, run
by the California Department of Food
and Agriculture, comes in.
While the program ensures farmers
have access to the school market, it also
expands children’s access to fresh food,
says Nicholas Anicich, the lead for the
58 comstocksmag.com | September 2020