First let me warn you I am saying "she" a lot in this post and "she" is Jackie Anderson.
So I am back from my meeting and it was a long one! First I want to thank Jackie Anderson for meeting with me. She is a really wonderful lady who I can tell really wants to work with me and I am really encouraged to keep the good fight going. I believe she is right here with me trying to make positive changes. She is very open and honest about what she has done, what she is trying to do and what she has messed up on.
One of the biggest hurdles is that she has a fear of raw foods (well not foods but meats) and I can see that point. Our district employs a lot of non-english speaking people who prepare our foods, it also employs a lot of people who are younger and truth be told convenience foods are so readily available that there are more and more people growing up who just cannot cook, and that honestly believe reheating food IS cooking. I suppose I would be scared if I were in her position as well.
We talked about some up and coming changes and some of the things that she has to do to comply with USDA guidelines. Like did you know that they had to offer two fat content type milks... so they can't just offer 1% white milk, they would have to offer a 1% white and a skim or 2% white milk as well. That sounds like a silly rule but rules are rules.
As for money, well our district FNS pays for itself, they are completely self sustained. Between reimbursable meals and self paying children they pay for everything. Approx $1.20 per meal is actual food costs (no labor or anything like that)
She is actually going to try to do the Healthier School Challenge for the school my kids are currently going to. There are a few tweaks she needs to make but she honestly believes that the school can get the Gold Award of Distinction. There are several things they need to do to earn that and she will be implementing those things district wide after she runs a test on our school. We talked about more raw vegetables being offered and so they will be adding a few more raw items to the menu, like broccoli. One of the most immediate changes is going to be that she is going to bid out the 2 fat content type white milks so that in our school that only white milk is being served during breakfast. There is no need for kids to be consuming strawberry milk with their cereal.
I did find out that our district purchase fruits and vegetables that our school doesn't always get, like melon was on today's fresh fruit option.. we have never had melon at school before. She said strawberries and kiwi have been available as well. Never before have I seen that and the principal also confirmed that. We talked about bananas, and she is going to try to get that back into our schools but those have been met with resistance by (surprisingly) some lunch ladies. It's all about having a little flexibility with when the fruit is served so that it will be a tasty option for the kids (no green or over ripe bananas).
I also asked her to feel this out. It is one of my goals to eliminate HFCS in the school district, to get a ban enacted on it within our school district. I wanted to know if she could find other options for us if that were to happen. We are tlaking about HFCS being in everything... ketsup, pizza, spaghetti sauce, milk, etc etc. I want to know realistically how well she could manage that.
She told me that there is a new 400 page playbook on rules for school lunches going into effect very soon. She is going to look through it to see if there might be some rules regarding HFCS and if there what they are and hopefully they will work right into that plan. If they get new rules on this that means the industry who sells to us will have to conform or well, they will be out of business. :)
Overall I am pleased with the way the meeting went. I felt like we worked on some easily obtainable goals and that we will be able to get something done here.
