Follow up to Case Study: Santa Cruz City Schools and the Fight for Revolution
By Serena Renner
Last night’s school board meeting marked two drastic changes for food service at Santa Cruz City Schools: the entering of a new nutrition services director as well as the hiring of Revolution Foods for meals served at the elementary and middle school level.
The nutrition services director, James “Jamie” Smith, was hired in closed session before the meeting began. Smith comes from a culinary arts background and most recently worked in institutional food service as the head chef at UC Santa Cruz.
Several lunch ladies in the audience murmured at the announcement of the district’s new hire, many of them still upset over the resignation of the former food service director, Denise McGregor, after her job description was changed to include expertise in culinary arts, nutrition and budget management.
Superintendent Gary Bloom halted the commentary just as one woman was about to stand up and speak, saying that the item was not up for discussion having been decided during closed session.
The board also approved a new food service contract with Revolution Foods to provide elementary breakfast and lunch as well as middle school lunch. The Oakland-based company is dedicated to offering scratch-cooked meals and fresh, local produce as opposed to the largely processed food currently served.
The consensus came after Board Member Rachel Dewey-Thorsett introduced an amendment to the proposal requiring the new food service manager to conduct a report by November assessing the cost-effectiveness of the program.
“The challenge is when you have something that isn’t working from the food point of view or the budget point of view,” Dewey-Thorsett said. “We want to improve the food now but also be careful about the budget simultaneously.”
Dewey-Thorsett echoed the sentiment of Board Member Don Maxwell who was hesitant to support a more expensive meal program when teachers are getting laid off and academic programs are financially strained.
The 2009-10 contract with Revolution Foods will cost the district an estimated $740,000 for daily food preparation and delivery, an increase from the current food program although Bloom was unable to give an exact figure because the cost could be offset by factors such as increased participation, which the district is anticipating. However, if the board decides the program is not cost-effective, the contract can be terminated with a 30-days notice, Bloom said.
Wellness Committee Chair Cynthia Hawthorne, who has been pioneering the changes for the past year and a half, was eager to cut through the debate and approve the contract once and for all.
“This isn’t the year to look at numbers,” Hawthorne said. “That was three, four years ago. We’re trying to turn direction…I don’t want to pick this a part with soft numbers.”
Now that the contract has been approved, meal prices will increase from $1.50 to $2 for breakfast and from $2.50 to $3.25 for lunch at elementary schools starting this fall. Middle school lunch will go from $3 to $3.50 while the high school food program will remain unchanged.
The district had originally planned to offer free breakfast through a Universal Breakfast program, but Superintendent Bloom decided it wasn’t affordable at this time.
The opposition to the contract is mostly made up of current food service staff who worry about additional costs as well as reduced hours and layoffs. While Superintendent Bloom said layoffs aren’t planned, he also made no guarantees.
“We can’t provide any definitive on [the impact to staffing] now but the new manager will be making recommendations soon,” Bloom said.
Others like food service employee Gina Navaroli question the logic in hiring a new culinary arts manager and then contracting out school food, especially since most board members agree that the district should eventually return to scratch cooking.
Food service employee Kim Jorgensen said the district tried outsourcing elementary meals in the past with a vendor named Preferred Meals and ended up losing money.
Jackie Henry-Russell’s main gripe with the whole decision-making process is that food service workers have been largely left out of discussions. She thinks the current staff is capable of preparing healthier meals if given the direction and resources to do so.
“We can do it, but we’ve never been given the opportunity,” she said.
Dewey-Thorsett agreed that ideally the district would prepare its own meals, but she admitted that the district doesn’t have the infrastructure to do so at this time.
“There’s an intuitive feeling that we can do this in house and it would be more affordable,” she said. “But the real goal is having kids in school having eaten breakfast and having access to a healthy lunch. This is the first step in doing that. It’s a step by step process.”
Kristin Richmond, founder and CEO of Revolution Foods, was also present at the meeting and spoke up saying the company has a proven track record of high meal consumption and that she is committed to creating a successful program through collaboration with the district.
———————-
Have questions about the Revolution Foods contract? Serena will be interviewing founder and CEO of Revolution Foods, Kristin Richmond, next Thursday 8/6 at 7 a.m. If you have any questions you’d like Serena to ask, comment here or email her at serena [at] spot.us .
