Have you ever wondered why at lunch they ask you to take a fruit and vegetable even if you don’t want it or plan on leaving it at the no-thank you tray? It’s because, in order to fund your free breakfast and lunch, the school has to offer ¼ cup of fruit or veg to each student to qualify as a complete meal! Think of it more as the state trying to ensure you, a student, have the opportunity to eat a balanced meal, rather than an advertisement to take it.
“Unless you take a fruit it is not a reimbursable meal, then it is not free. It’s half a cup of fruit or vegetable.” Nandini Kumar, a cook says. Autumn Mulles backs this up when asked if she had a message she wanted shared to the students: “If you can share that message to take fruit at breakfast or lunch, or vegetable – and not like a couple carrots but half a cup, or an apple, that would be so helpful.”
The lunch staff has a ratio that they try to meet for each lunch, ensuring variety.
“[The ratio is] spicy 80, regular 50, cheeseburger 50 or lower, 20 pizzas a day in 8 slices, 3 servings in nacho. So usually that’s 400 kids on average. We throw away 10 to 30 meals a day usually.”
She estimates that it is 200-300 kids who claim their free breakfast and another 400+ at lunch, which Nandini agrees with..
As for costs, they both confirmed that The Oregon Department of Education is how it’s all funded. Nandini says they’ve never been allowed to take leftovers home before and after switching programs however, “The kitchen staff pays a dollar for a meal, the other staff has a price list, but at no point can anyone take leftovers home.” She explains.
“I know before we were trying to give it to the homeless shelters before but because of the OED it limits what we can do with the food. Once it’s made and has been sitting for a lot of time we can’t hand it out. I hate it because I wish I could, the reason we can’t make food for seconds is because we don’t make enough food for everyone to get a second meal.”
“The quality of food is better but it is more expensive. It’s harder, more time consuming, but to give you guys better food is what we want to do.” Mulles says,
“I love that we’re trying to create a better food product for you guys I like but I wish there was more communication. No one thinks about the work that’s being done. The ideas are great, however, when you’re the one initiating those ideas and you just tell a different crew to do it, it’s easier to do that whereas we are in the kitchen, in the thick of it, so it’s definitely more time and work to make things from scratch.”
“Our student staff should get a shoutout as well!” Mulles adds, “We have the student helpers and they come in like 5 minutes before lunch and they help out and serve you guys and that takes a big toll off of us so we can work the stations and prepping. They’re amazing, without them we’d have to be serving you guys and that takes like 40 minutes out of your day which would be so much harder.”
“I am so happy. Everyone gets to eat and now what we’re trying to do is make the best food we can from scratch recipe. We’re trying to get more fresh food and things like that, I am so excited” Nandini says.
But not everyone was so lucky with fresh, balanced meals Mulles tells us, “When I was a kid we didn’t have a free lunch program. I was one of the kids who didn’t have enough money in my account and I had to get nasty bolognan sandwiches. No kid should ever go hungry! You’re trying to stay awake and listen to your teacher, the last thing you want to think about is, ‘Oh, I’m starving.’ And there are kids that rely on school lunches and as a parent, that’s the most important thing to me.”
“For a long time, before this new program, our food was just heat-and-serve. We just got a new mixer and that is to make scratch bread for example. I feel like it’s moving in the right direction. The quality is way, way better than what we used to have” Nandini recalls.
