February 14, 2008
DCPS Promises Better Cafeteria Food
Mayor Adrian Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee announced this morning D.C. Public Schools' plan to outsource its food service operations—a move that they say will save the city millions of dollars and offer new, nutritious meals to students.
"The Mayor and I want to introduce students to a variety of foods to help train their palates to choose healthier foods for the rest of their lives. It is part of what a well-rounded education should offer. Good nutrition can certainly help enhance academic achievement," Rhee said in a written statement.
DCPS’ Office of Food and Nutrition Services (OFNS) will solicit bids from food service professionals to manage DCPS food operations and provide fresh, high-quality, nutritious food. In addition, the office will also hold vendor presentations for student input and taste testing opportunities.
In 2006, OFNS provided more than 8.8 million breakfasts, lunches and snacks to DCPS students at a net loss of $9.5 million. OFNS is projected to have lost $10.8 million in 2007 and $11.6 million in 2008. Less than 40 percent of DCPS high school students eat school provided lunch, mostly because of long lines or because they don’t like the taste of the food, and one goal of the proposal is to increase students’ consumption of the cafeteria food.
So far, students and teachers seem to welcome this culinary development.
"It seems that as many students go without eating the lunch at all rather than eating what the school currently offers," said Dan Gordon, a teacher at Bell Multicultural High School in Columbia Heights. "By 4th period, they are either dragging their heels for lack of nutrition, or bouncing around the room from their own three-course lunch of candy, chips and soda."
Kyle Sumner, a senior at Bell, added, "Cafeteria food is sub-par. It's chewy, bland, and half the time we don't even know what we're eating. All I'm asking for is some food that looks like more than thirty seconds of effort were put into it's cooking. Also, something other than chicken and fish would be nice."
Taste aside, another way that DCPS could save some money in the cafeteria is by claiming government reimbursements for meals for students living at or near the poverty line. About 64 percent of students qualify for the federal Free and Reduced Food program, but DCPS has often failed to ensure that eligible students complete the required paperwork. DCPS’ lack of accountability means that the District has missed out on thousands of dollars in reimbursements. According to a District release, DCPS pays $1.68 for each pre-plated meal provided by the current vendor, and the federal government reimburses $2.49 for students who are eligible for free meals. The Mayor’s office has promised to be more accountable for this oversight in the future.
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this is nothing but socialized nutrition, and i, for one, will not stand for it!
I suppose anything's better than 8-year-old packages of macaroni and moldy grape jelly. I only hope they include Big Kahuna Burgers: the cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast.
Food in 1950s-1970s advertising always, without fail, looks disgusting and so, so fake. Ugh.
Regarding DCPS not claiming all the reimbursements they might be entitled to: it's not entirely, or even mostly their fault. Nationwide, parents are reticent to fill out the form that would qualify their students for free & reduced price meals. They fear the stigma that might be associated with telling the school that they are poor.
I still don't understand why School Boards allow companies to put "Chips and Soda" machines around schools.
I still don't understand why School Boards allow companies to put "Chips and Soda" machines around schools.
DCfist - How can you possibly say that?
It's as if the food has been aging along with the actual physical photo.
That picture is in the awesome Boring Postcards book.
I suggest a motivational approach:
A Students: Organically grown, free range food prepared with care by chefs graduated from the CIA (the Culinary Institute, not the spooks, although that would work).
B students would get various kinds of "wraps", including Vegan.
C levels have their choice of any one of a selection of Instant Ramen and all the hot water they need.
D students get a single serving of Jumbo Slice.
I don't recall ordering toast with a brick of butter as well as mashed potatoes with eczema. But thank you!
School districts get PAID to put the snack/corn syrup soda machines in schools. When school budgets were being cut in the 1980s, in came the machines to take up the budget slack.
I love that cup of coffee next to that pie in the picture. Nothing gets a third grader through the afternoon like a hot cup of joe and some damned good cherry pie. Who took that photo? David Lynch?
What is that gray scaly stuff in the lower right part of the tray? Raw dead fish?
But I do love the serving trays. I wish I had me a few of those.
Starting in 2006, all DCPS schools adopted a healthy vending policy, which means that no soda can be sold in the machines. Now only juice, water, and nutritious snacks can be offered. From what I understand this has been a win for schools who do use the sales to fund activities, and a win for community groups and parents concerned about health.
I'm so glad to hear this! I volunteer at an elementary school, and I cannot fathom how anyone can eat that food. My "student"'s jello was frozen, and she seems to have a large variety of chicken nugget shapes. Also, there was something grey one day. I still don't know what that was..maybe tuna salad?
i always drink coffee with my Cod.
Looks pretty cooked to me. If anything, it's overcooked fish. Probably some bottom-feeding chub fish.
Having public school lunches that included raw, sushi grade tuna would kick ass. Beats the crap out of those rockhard s**tcake burger patties and sheet pizza slop the hairnetted ladies peddled to us in Young Pioneer camp.
monquin - Problem with the juice vending machines is that most have just as much high-fructose corn syrup as the sodas.
It does help wash down the chilled monkey's brains, Dr. Jones.
monkeyrotica--
Actually, there are specific guidelines regarding which juice drinks are allowable. From what I've seen, it's usually 100%. No corn syrup allowed.
Here is the specific policy:
(1) The following beverages shall not be provided or sold schools:
(A) Soft drinks, sports drinks, punches, and iced teas;
(B) Fruit-based drinks that contain less than 50 percent real fruit juice or that contain additional
sweeteners; and
(C) Drinks containing caffeine, excluding low-fat or fat-free chocolate milk.
Nice. Old Bay on your mashed potatoes and three pats of butter for every slice.
monkey is basically right.. except juice doesn't have HFCS, just regular sugar.
There was a thing on NPR this AM about LA schools putting up salad bars and encouraging kids to try stuff. I was in a dreamlike haze during most of it, but I recall that part of the effort is educate kids about fruits and vegs they may not be familiar with. So they weave it into classroom discussion (biology class, nutrition, etc.) and do tastings in class. Then when the get to the lunch room they're a little more familiar with what they're presented with. Most of the kids like it and like all the choices. Something similar for DCPS could be interesting. There's a whole lotta opportunities for edu-macatin' just by talking about food. Biology, world cultures, geography, economics, health, etc. etc. Anything that forces people to think about what they eat and why is a good thing in my book.
in all fairness to dcps, institutional food in general is pretty bad. The USDA cafeteria was gawd-awful; the usual fried sysco garbage was in full effect as well as a cornucopia of over-cooked vegetables and meats.
Mmmm, must be Friday.
Anyone else remember Fishstick Fridays? Yum.
In the eternal struggle between Rap Snacks and fresh vegetables, to quote daywalker and tax avoision expert Wesley Snipes, "Always bet on black."
And as we learned in last week's lesson, you don't win friends with salad.
rat - They fried your Sysco garbage? I would have paid an extra dollar for them to fry ours. What we got was pretty much a boiled/steamed slurry suitable for those who suffer from "flavor intolerance" or those recovering from strokes or major surgery.
The salted "liquor" that the canned stringbeans came in was always worth chugging, though. And you could really taste the hooves in the Jello.
We assumed that in the back of the cafeteria, they kept 50 pound bags of powder that they added water to that could be molded into that day's lunch: burgers, fish sticks, pizza, tater tots...salisbury steak..