Comments on: Oakland gets serious about school food

By: Susan Audap

Susan Audap — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:26:16 +0000

“This year” is the important part of Mr. Stenger’s comment. Allison and her group — the Oakland School Food Alliance — have done so much to bring good, nutritious food to all the children of Oakland, and they and Jennifer LaBarre are to be congratulated for their accomplishments AND the inclusive, democratic way they’ve worked.
A couple of years ago, there was at least one Thornhill parent who informed the alliance that he was initiating the program as described above. Whether it actually got off the ground, I don’t know. But it sounds like, whatever happened in the past, it’s not happening now.

By: Katy Murphy

Katy Murphy — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:42:23 +0000

I just got off the phone with Mel Stenger, the Thornhill principal. It’s his first year at the elementary school, and he said he was bewildered by the statements posted about his school’s lunch program (local restaurants providing some of the food). He said his kids get the same school lunches as those in other OUSD schools.

He said: “We have nothing going on like that this year. It’s totally erroneous.”

By: Mel Stenger

Mel Stenger — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:09:55 +0000

As the new principal of Thornhill Elementary I would like to correct the record regarding our lunch program. I don’t know where the commenter above got the information, but Thornhill does not have any program using local restaurants to supply lunches to our students. We participate in the OUSD lunch program provided by our food services.

By: J.R.

J.R. — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:42:28 +0000

“FUNDING NOTE: Most school lunch programs operate without the support of a school district’s general fund. They must survive on food sales, combined with federal reimbursement funding from the National School Lunch Program and grants.

FOOD STATS: More than 70 percent of OUSD schoolchildren qualify for a federally subsidized meal, according to the feasibility study. OUSD serves about 6.6 million meals a year, including breakfast and snacks”.

I object to the funding inequities here, those just missing the cutoff are at a severe financial disadvantage:

Free reduced lunch guidelines

Household Members
Yearly Monthly
1. $20,147 $1,679

2. $27,214 $2,268

3. $34,281 $2,857

4. $41,348 $3,446

5. $48,415 $4,035

6. $55,482 $4,624

7. $62,549 $5,213

8. $69,616 $5,802

As you can see from the chart above, this is not about poverty(other than the first two or three slots), or even close to it(and this applies to using free reduced lunch numbers as an excuse for academic failure as well).
This type of funding structure is destructive and unsustainable just like the state budget, the few who actually pay subsidize and support those that do not just like their parents, and probably their parents before them.

By: OUSD Parent

OUSD Parent — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:23:28 +0000

Why is OUSD so strict when it comes to individual school sites creating positive change for its student body? That doesn’t make sense to me. Could Thornhill be running a pilot program that, if successful, could be rolled out to all school sites?

By: another interested parent

another interested parent — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:50:33 +0000

But if it is allergy-related, then only the kids with the allergies would get access to the non-OUSD food and that doesn’t sound like what is happening at your school.

There is a very complicated set of OUSD rules with regard to what can be served at a school site. Not only can the food not compete with OUSD but it also has to comform to OUSD, state, and federal laws with regard to healthy food served in schools. Certain items cannot be served at all. OUSD’s regs alone are pages long on this. I am really curious how Thornhill handled these regsulations and how it has managed to get around them. I know one school that tried to bring in restaurant food last year and got dinged for it and those regulations were cited for why it couldn’t happen. If Thornhill was able to get some kind of waiver, then it would be great to know how that was done so other schools could follow.

By: Allison Rodman

Allison Rodman — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:05:02 +0000

It is true the food could be better and it will, once the feasibility study is approved and funding secured. When will that be? Well perhaps not for years. Will that help my 9 year old eat better every day, every meal at school in the next 8 years of OUSD schooling, probably not. But! In the interim we can come together as a community to bolster what is in place. What if, we funded a program to put a basket on every teacher’s desk every week full of fresh fruit & energy bars. What if we made sure every school participated in the Universal Breakfast program (the more participation, the more money for Nutrition Services to do their work, not to mention full tummies so the thinking can happen) What if an army of trained chefs came in once a week and helped cook a scratch meal. I know our community has the talent to solve this issue both short term and long term. Meanwhile support the amazing efforts that have brought us to today with salad bars, school farmers markets, way more fruits and vegetables on the plate, whole wheat flour, meatless Mondays, the yanking out of deep fat fryers and soda machines– and the list goes on. Jennifer LeBarre, Nutrition Services Director , is a national leader and her vision that includes new facilities,an OUSD farm, training her workers to be “chefs” not box openers will change (perhaps save) children’s lives. ALL our Oakland kids should have food security during their hours at school (at least). And until we create a sustainable system for that to happen, every school day, for breakfast, lunch and snack, we have not done our job as the adults in the room.
I challenge the Oakland community full of trendy restaurants, innovative food manufacturers, food bloggers, food truck artists, chefs, whole food stores, food thinkers who reside in this bountiful region to do what you do best– roll up your sleeves and join the work party to insure food security and healthy fare for these vulnerable people, our children. Meanwhile,the parent groups who circumnavigate the system or who are pointing fingers and not helping are antithetical to an equitable solution. My kid is an Oakland kid, period. We as a family feel affinity with all kids , all families and all schools in Oakland. Parents organizing outside the system to feed just their kids and not working within OUSD to better the whole system are sending a cynical message to their kids and we need you! Lets work to give All our Oakland kids our help now!

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:48:02 +0000

I am not sure. I do know that several other schools are looking at the same thing. It also may also have something to do with student allergies and OUSD not being able to meet the needs of the students.

Several schools had real problems with the salad bar. First they required school volunteers, then extra money, perhaps that was one of the issues as well.

How do the schools with vending machines get away with the competition issue?

By: another interested parent

another interested parent — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:40:47 +0000

Catherine,
How did Thornhill accomplish this given the OUSD regulations that disallow the sale of any food sold on site in competition with OUSD’s food service? Did you get a waiver?

By: OUSD Parent

OUSD Parent — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:54:28 +0000

That does sound like a great program. Thanks for sharing the details.