District known for fresh offerings
WILMONT Everyday when the clock strikes 12:06 p.m., the tranquility of the central courtyard at Lincoln Middle School is disrupted — a sonic boom of enthusiastic schoolyard chatter erupts as hundreds of students file out of their classrooms, some with brown bags in hand, others forming lines in front of strategically placed carts.
Lunchtime has just commenced. While it doesn’t have the moniker of being the “most important meal of the day,” the mid-day food break is nevertheless considered just as vital to the physical and educational nourishment of students in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. The quality of the food provided in lunch in the nation’s schools was recently called into question by federal officials when reports surfaced of inhumane cattle handling practices at a Chino slaughterhouse.
Once one of the largest suppliers of beef to school districts nationwide, Hallmark Meat Packaging’s operations were suspended by the federal government earlier this month, prompting districts across the country to pull beef from their programs as a precautionary measure, including, reportedly, the SMMUSD.
So what’s in the lunch? SMMUSD is among 12 school districts in the South Bay area that is part of a purchasing cooperative agreement, all buying food through the same local distributors and vendors.
All items, whether it is milk, vegetables or even bread, is purchased from a local Los Angeles-area vendor, according to Orlando Griego, the director of Food Services for the district.
The lunch menus for all the elementary schools are planned centrally at the district’s headquarters, while the middle schools and high schools have the option of serving various lunch options from a list that is approved by the district’s nutritionist, Donna Richwine, who studies each item to be sure it is compliant with state and federal standards.
The reason for giving students the option of choosing their own lunch starting in the middle school years has to do with the maturation process of becoming young adults, Griego said.
“The youngsters are becoming adults and are able to make choices for themselves,” Griego said.
Each campus also offers after-lunch snacks, whether it’s cookies at the elementary schools or vending machines at the middle school and high schools, the latter of which still serves soda but will be phased out completely by July 2009.
The students at Santa Monica High School also have the added option of buying their lunch from the Vikes’ Café, a venture operated by the student organization, Students for the Advancement of Global Leadership (SAGE).
SAGE began operating the Vikes’ Inn Student Store in 1994 and two years later, a local businessman approached the district about starting a joint venture to allow students to operate their own café.
In 1996, the Vikes’ Café opened in a snack bar in the school cafeteria, selling items that aren’t otherwise offered through the district-operated and owned lunch carts, according to Anita Kemp, one of the instructors for SAGE.
Both ventures bring in a combined $200,000 a year.
But perhaps one of the most popular attributes of the lunch program at the district is the salad bar whose ingredients are purchased twice a week at the Downtown Santa Monica Farmers’ Market.
It was 10 years ago that the salad bar was launched at McKinley Elementary School, a program initiated by a school parent who thought it would be interesting to tap into one of the city’s most famous resources — the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market — and make it available to the students.
Today, the salad bar is offered at all the schools and is open every Thursday at the elementary schools and every day at the middle and high schools.
Aside from fruits and vegetables, the bar also serves pasta — the most popular item for the elementary age audience — baked potatoes and occasionally, taco salads.
The bar continues to be one of the most popular lunch-time areas at the schools with the district having served more than 19,900 salads in January, which is an average of 1,100 a day.
On average, the district purchases roughly 200 heads of lettuce, 120 cucumbers and 80 bunches of broccoli every week.
“It’s always fresh, it’s pesticide free and it’s from local farmers in Southern California,” Richwine said.
The success of the program has led to a DVD and a workbook created by Richwine who has often been approached by other school districts interested in creating a similar program.
“Imagine that you’re getting farm fresh fruits and vegetables every day,” Richwine said, referring to what makes for a successful salad bar. “The taste is unlike the other produce — it’s in season, the farmers pick it the day before they bring it to the market.”
The immense success of the salad bar has even warranted itself a celebration — the district plans to bring back key figures in the launch of the salad bar together for a May 8 event at where it all started — McKinley Elementary School.
The salad bar is just one of the various components that keep the 75-staff member Food Services department running every day at the school district. Operating off a $3.5 million budget this fiscal year, Food Services is a self-sustaining department, everything from the salaries and supplies being purchased using revenue.
The reaction of parents about the quality of the lunch program appears to be a mixed bag, some preferring to see healthier options, others impressed.
“I’m probably in the minority but I know an awful lot about how food services operate and I know how hard it is to get good food out there for the kids,” Lori Whitesell, the PTA president at Will Rogers Learning Community, said. “I’m quite impressed with the job the district does.”
Whitesell, who once worked in food sales for a meat manufacturing company, has two sons at Will Rogers and both buy the school lunches about 70 percent of the time.
“I never get complaints from them,” Whitesell said. “Some of the stuff they actually really like.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 18, 2008. Read the original PDF.