potrero view

A San Francisco Unified School District student painting.

February 2009

San Francisco Unified School District Serves Healthy Food to Students

By Lori Higa

San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) is turning the old saying “there’s no free lunch” on its head.  As a result of activist principals, parents and students, and with support from federally-mandated programs, SFUSD now serves some of the healthiest, freshest, tastiest and perhaps happiest meals in town, at low- and sometimes, no-cost.  SFUSD provides meals to students at 34 preschools, 102 elementary, middle, and high schools, eight county/court schools and nine charter schools.

According to Nancy Waymack, the District’s director of policy and operations,  “No one gets a cinnamon roll for breakfast, the kind of food we ate when we were kids.”   Today’s students have healthy food choices, including fresh fruit, salad bars and pizza with whole grain crusts, instead of junk food and sodas high in fat, sugar, and calories.   

Gone are the days when students were given “carnival food like hot dogs, French fries, things you can eat with your fingers not a fork,” said Dana Woldow, parent and co-chair of the Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee.  Fatty, sugary foods have contributed to the obesity and Type Two diabetes epidemic sweeping the nation.  The committee worked closely with Ed Wilkins, Student Nutrition Services director, to improve meals served at public schools.  “Without Ed, I can say categorically we would not have the good school food we have today!”  said Woldow.  “He stood up to vendors, got them to get rid of trans-fat and made sure meals were packaged differently for us, so our kids didn’t get the same crappy fried potatoes or turnovers that pass for nutrition in other districts.”

“We in San Francisco are very fortunate to have active parent groups who do so much for our schools,”  said Waymack.  “Everything from coming up with creative ideas to producing fund-raising events to support our programs.”

All SFUSD elementary schools serve the same menu items, which vary daily and weekly.  “Each meal has a number of nutritional requirements set by both the U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] and SFUSD’s own wellness policy that guarantee a specific level of nutrition,” said Waymack.  Menus are announced every morning over SFUSD public radio station KALW, and can be found on the district’s website.

Lunch includes a vegetable and milk.  Students can purchase fresh fruits, water or fruit juice a la carte.  Veggie dishes include chili, bean burritos and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Non-vegetarian entrées consist of chicken tetrazzini, turkey sandwiches and tuna noodles.  Menu items are selected based in part on input from a student advisory council.  “No more than 30 percent of the calories in any meal can be fat, and all food served is trans-fat free,” Waymack said.

Salad bars are generally only available at middle and high schools, and are dispersed throughout the District.  Eight elementary schools boast salad bars, including Starr King.  Woldow doesn’t think it’s practical for younger students to have a salad bar.  “It’s harder for them to handle the tongs needed to pick up salad leafs, they don’t have the motor skills developed yet,” she said.  As a result, elementary schools with salad bars need another adult to supervise.  “Each school only gets one cafeteria worker, so there’s no money for a second employee.”

“Unfortunately for us,” said Waymack, “SFUSD will never have what Berkeley has,” which is the services of renowned nouvelle California cuisine food wonder Alice Waters.  In addition, the Berkeley school district receives more state funds, an additional $1.25 for each meal, than SFUSD.   In the 1970s the state provided additional monies and food discounts to qualified schools, Waymack explained, financed through a Proposition 13 property tax override for school lunches which San Francisco voters declined to approve.  “Unfortunately for us, if a school did not participate back then, they are not eligible now.”

SFUSD serves 3.8 million lunches a year, and a little less than one million breakfasts and snacks.  That’s 22,000 lunches and more than 6,000 breakfasts daily.  Meal prices are standardized through the District.  “Breakfast is $1.50 for all grades.  Lunch is $2 for elementary, $2.50 at middle schools and $3.00 at high schools,” said Waymack.  The district also subsidizes meal costs for students who qualify for reduced price or free lunches.   SFUSD provides free meals even to students who technically qualify only for “reduced price” meals.  Any family who has experienced job loss is encouraged to complete an application reflecting the change in household income.  It’s never too late to fill out an application; families can apply for low- or no-cost meals at any time during the year.  Applications are completely confidential and not shared with any other government agency.

The National School Lunch program was created after World War II, prompted by the number of many recruits that showed up at induction centers malnourished.  “The National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, through the USDA, regulate school meals as well as provide funds to support meal programs,” Waymack explained.  zUSDA provides $2.59 per meal for students who qualify for free meals, $2.19 per meal for students who qualify for a reduced price lunch and 26 cents per meal for students who pay for their meals.  Historically the state has provided an additional 22 cents per meal.  However, the state ran out of money last year, and didn’t provide the expected 22 cents.  This year the state has already announced that no funds will be available for the program, at a time when SFUSD may be facing upwards of $25 million in cuts.

Waymack is quick to point out that federal funds don’t cover entire meal costs, especially in a high priced area like San Francisco.  While costs vary from region to region, the federal reimbursement is the same for all states except Hawaii and Alaska.  Similarly, the income criteria for families to qualify for free or reduced price meals is the same in all lower 48 states.

Woldow, a San Francisco resident since 1977 who now lives in West Portal/West of Twin Peaks, got involved with SFUSD in 1992, when she was asked if she could help with everything from field trips to beautification.  Her children were attending Aptos Middle School at the time, near City College of San Francisco’s main campus.  She remembered the day a new principal arrived at the school, who was welcomed in a particularly undiplomatic way by the then head of student nutrition.   “The principal asked if the school could stop selling soda and junk food in the cafeteria.  The response was ‘No you can’t stop doing that and if you ask again, I’ll make sure you lose your job.’  The principal was so taken aback she came to me and asked what was going on.  I said I don’t know but if I’ll be happy to look into it for you.”

A decade ago, according to Woldow, “school food was a vast wasteland, no one objected, no one did anything even though obesity was an issue that had been talked about…I knew the schools were selling garbage to our kids but I didn’t ask, it wasn’t a concern to me because I made lunch bags for my two children and they liked that.  Schools needed money; that’s why they sold junk food.  They mistakenly believed that junk food was the only food kids wanted to eat, or would buy.”

SFUSD’s healthy food revolution started when a number of teachers, parents and principals came up with the idea to conduct a pilot program at Aptos in 2002.  The Board of Education considered a resolution to eliminate junk food from cafeterias, and studied the financial feasibility of providing healthy food instead.   The resolution removed junk food and drink from cafeterias and vending machines.  “We got it approved by then superintendent Arlene Ackerman because we suggested it would be a way to track the financial impact of removing junk food,”  Woldow recalled.  The pilot launched in January 2003.  By March the cafeteria, which had been running a deficit, was breaking even, and by June it was profitable.  “We demonstrated that kids like healthy food and that it can make money,” said Woldow.

A committee of 45 parents, teachers and community members were tasked with developing a wellness and nutrition policy after the Board passed a resolution mandating it.  The policy was enacted in the 2003-2004 school year, recalled Woldow.  “We replaced a la carte items in the revoltingly named ‘beanery,’ which sold chips, sodas and disgusting entrees like chicken wings and hot links,” Woldow explained.  “We got rid of sodas and junk food, replacing them with water, milk, fruit juice, deli sandwiches, salad, soup; foods kids wanted.”

By the 2006-07 school year, the state Child Nutrition Act authorized every school district to have a wellness policy.  Parents quickly helped bring together health care professionals, community members and school staff, putting SFUSD ahead by three years of other districts in implementing the policy.  For the 2008-09 school year, more changes have been approved, including offering whole grain bread and brown rice.

Woldow helped secure a $60,000 grant from the California Department of Education to provide Balboa High School students with free fresh fruits and vegetables and “grab & go” breakfasts, with more than 2,700 fruits distributed twice a week.  At Lowell High School Woldow worked with students to produce posters which compare the costs and nutritional value of SFUSD food with fast and junk foods available off-campus.  “The fruit program at Balboa requires an enormous amount of time,”  Woldow admitted.  Had she known how much work it would take, “I would never have agreed to administer it.  I don’t think I will ever do that again, but I expect to continue to work on other, less labor intensive projects to improve school food for as long as I am needed.”

The question now is, “Can we continue with the healthy foods program in the face of these budget cuts?” Woldow said.  Meals with healthier ingredients, such as whole grains and brown rice, cost more.  SFUSD’s food vendor,  Preferred Meal Systems, serves more than one million meals a day statewide, with just 22,000 delivered to San Francisco.  They have to re-tool their production line and make the District’s meal separately.  “That costs more, too,” Woldow said.

No- or low-cost meal applications are available at each school or by calling 749.3604.

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