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A School Lunch Non-Profit?
Thomas Kim, the chief financial officer of Baltimore’s health department, suggests over on the Audacious Ideas blog that non-profit organizations could be the solution for school food.
“A non-profit organization would hire staff to utilize the cooking kitchens already in place in schools, and reinvest all revenue back into the quality and production of meals. A local “celebrity chef” would spearhead the creation of the menus and generate significant interest. Participating schools would commit to funding a nutrition and etiquette leader to compliment the meals served.”
It’s an intriguing concept, and commenters raised even more interesting possibilities. One suggested that school kitchens could serve as training centers for careers in foodservice and nutrition. Another suggested that the initiative could be staffed by people returning from prison, giving them an opportunity to become productive members of the community (though I’m sure there would be an uproar over the thought of putting ex-convicts to work in elementary schools).
One commenter asked why a non-profit “is assumed to be better than the staff of the public schools.” He does have a point — A non-profit would run into many of the same obstacles that current school food service directors face right now. Labor costs and facilities constraints wouldn’t change, and even an outside organization would have to dish out meals kids like to bring in customers.
Kim clarifies his idea in a comment down at the bottom of the page, noting that the non-profit he has in mind would devote 100 percent of federal reimbursements to food production. All overhead costs would come from public and private donations, he says. Plus, the organization would be entirely devoted to the quality of meals and would partner with health agencies to analyze the relationship between nutritious food and educational and health outcomes. And the celebrity chef would surely help bring students into the cafeteria, even if French fries are off the menu.
In some cases, I think it would be unnecessary to bring in an outside organization to run school lunch. Many food service supervisors do want to serve good food — they just can’t because the nature of their jobs is that budget is the bottom line. Rather than outsourcing meal production to a non-profit, districts could simply set aside money for meal programs’ overhead costs, just like the non-profit would. With schools facing budget cuts, that’s unlikely to happen. But it’s something to keep in mind, and a few districts like Berkeley Unified are already doing it.
Still, not every meal program director cares about nutrition. Many come from backgrounds in fast food or restaurant management and have little interest in feeding children high-quality, nutritious meals. Others have worked their way up from their first job as a cook or a food services assistant and know little about nutrition aside from the USDA requirements for school meals. If such an organization could really make student health, and not budget, the bottom line in school lunch, this could be a truly transformational idea. Maybe it’s worth a try.
July 8th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Consider the FOR PROFIT food service management companies for a minute. How do they pull a profit out of the schools they serve? It can only be from serving poor quality food! 25% of the nation’s cafeterias are run by the for profit food industry. School food should be run in a not for profit manner and there should be a complete accounting for all dollars and ingredients.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Debbie– can we start one of these?
July 11th, 2009 at 9:12 am
I ran into this article a while ago about a chef in Chicago who started a nonprofit to start feeding kids healthy organic food in a few elementary schools. It’s a good article, covers the successes, but also the difficulties, like the need for lots of funding. http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/schoollunch/
July 15th, 2009 at 8:44 am
A little off topic, but I was wondering if there are any food service directors out there with a tastey and popular recipe for some kind of chicken and veg stir-fry. Our kids have been asking for “Chinese Food” I’d like to incorporate something into our menu for the fall. (And if there is a better place I should post questions like these I would be so grateful to know about it!)
October 12th, 2009 at 1:06 am
Check out what is going on in Berkeley, CA. Alice Waters and her Chez Panisse Foundation have started a food movement in the public schools that has taken off. I believe she is replicating this model in other cities. Called the “Edible Schoolyard” program, this curriculum-connected food growing, food service model brings gardens into urban schoolyards and gives students a connection to the production of their food. Additionally, the concept of eating locally and healthily is then introduced as a possibility in childrens’ lives. For more info: http://www.edibleschoolyard.org.