An email was sent out informing students about a new raffle system the lunch staff is doing at lunch and breakfast, or heard over announcements about how the “lunch cart” will be at the C Hall doors. All of these things are ways the lunch staff hopes to increase the number of students who get food at lunch and breakfast.
The Greater Albany School District switched lunch providers from Sodexo to Genuine Foods around May of last year. According to the Genuine Foods website, they are one of the nation’s leading purpose-driven food services, providing meals from scratch throughout our nation’s education and workplaces. Genuine Foods believes that “nourishment goes beyond nutrition— it is love.”
With this new switch came different funding for the lunch program. While the old lunch program was funded by the district, the new one is funded by the Oregon Department of Education; this means the budgeting situation is a bit different this year.
With the Oregon Department of Education now funding the lunch program, there are many new regulations and standards. Such as the amount of sugar or protein in the food, or the number of students who get lunch or breakfast. The district needs to meet these standards to receive the amount of funding wanted from the Oregon Department of Education.
The lunch cart started to catch the upperclassmen leaving for lunch. They hoped the students leaving to hang out in their cars would take advantage of the free school lunch rather than buy food elsewhere. By taking lunch, students would help increase the number of students getting lunch; therefore, increasing the budget for the lunch program.
The same goes for the raffle tickets the lunch staff has started giving out to students every time they get food. The email about the raffle tickets reads “win a $20 Amazon gift card for just eating breakfast or lunch.” The email goes on to say how they plan to hold gift card drawings throughout January and February, hopefully increasing the number of students getting lunch or breakfast.
