School lunch delivery at your public school?
Hi, has anyone set up a school lunch delivery service at your child’s public school? The school lunches at my son’s school are not very delicious or nutritious and there are so many awesome looking businesses that are making and delivering school lunches. Wondering what it was like to set it up at your school and if you have, can you recommend one in particular for the East Bay? Especially looking for one that uses sustainably sourced meat and dairy. Thanks!
Feb 26, 2020
Parent Replies
Save your time; this will never fly in a unionized environment. I suggest you work at the district level to change the menus.
What the previous poster said. This isn't possible a public school setting given union and federal lunch program restrictions--nor should it be, if you can imagine a scenario in which the higher income students started purchasing specially-delivered (and perhaps healthier/tastier) school lunches, while the students who rely on free and reduced price lunches continued to eat the cafeteria fare. It would create huge equity issues, and I don't know of a district or principal that would agree to it. I do know of a few schools where parents have provided supplemental food for lunch like a salad bar where they do the fundraising and then provide the food to all kids. That might be a path to explore, if your school's PTA is interested or you're willing to spearhead it. And as the first poster suggested, work with your school district to see how change can happen at the district level. Oakland Unified is getting ready to open a new central kitchen, for instance, to provide fresher food to schools. Other districts may already be exploring similar solutions and would appreciate your advocacy and help.
A couple of resources to help you improve school lunches district-wide with organic and local ingredients are the National Farm to School Network (http://www.farmtoschool.org/) and California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF: https://www.ccof.org/).
Having a private lunch delivery service at a public school is problematic. Most importantly, because it would identify & stigmatize children who are receiving free or reduced price lunch — kids who couldn’t afford the special lunch that wealthier kids are buying. The free lunch program operates on very specific nutrition rules & at a very low cost. It’s important not to undermine it, or to discourage low income children from eating their school lunch.