MISSION SAN JOSE HIGH SCHOOL
VOL. 52, NO. 4
December 22, 2016
41717 PALM AVENUE, FREMONT, CA 94539
Investigative Report: School Food By Jessica Jen, Andrew Kan, Evie Sun & Maggie Zhao Staff Writers
Current Guidelines The CA Department of Education recently updated their regulations on school nutrition. FUSD is currently revising its wellness policy created in 2006, Board Review 5030, to adhere to the new regulations. As of July 1, 2016, the FUSD Board of Child Nutrition Services revised the Wellness Policy 5030 to incorporate new regulations to improve school nutrition. Starting in the school year, students across FUSD are required to include half a cup of fruits or vegetables with their school lunch. In addition, the food items sold on school campuses cannot contain more than 200 milligrams of sodium, and they must be free of any forms of trans fats. The regulations are uniform across the district, and the meal patterns are based on the students’ age groups and grade levels. For example, the calorie count requirements differ between the elementary schools, junior high schools, and high school schools, but not between individual high schools. Elementary school snacks not provided by FUSD must be less than 175 calories whereas junior high and high school snacks sold on campus must be less than 250 calories.
A lunch of an entrée, mik, and vegetables at MSJ has 500 to 600 calories.
Production and Distribution In order to obtain the fruits and vegetables that compose school lunches, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires all school districts to bid for items from nearby suppliers. FUSD selects suppliers based on four criteria: the timeframe during which the suppliers are capable of delivering food, the food quality, the safety and sanitary processes, and the pricing. These suppliers deliver their items once to twice a week to the kitchen. Each high school in FUSD prepares its own meals and snacks, as well as the meals for the elementary schools in its attendance area. However, the junior high schools have begun to prepare nearly all of their own food. The kitchen at MSJ begins preparations in the morning to send food to elementary schools by 8:30 a.m to 10 a.m. Food is prepared on site, with ingredients from district warehouses. A cook and baker make the food and the the L2 students place
National Standards
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a branch of the USDA, and has several requirements for high school lunches. For example, nutritionally, lunches must also meet certain Required Daily Allowances for nutrients such as protein and Vitamin A. Compared to MSJ, which offers an entrée, fruits and vegetables from the produce bar, and a choice between juice and milk, NSLP lunches must have an entrée and milk. However, NSLP lunches are required to have at least 825 calories per meal whereas a MSJ lunch consisting of an entrée, milk, and vegetables only has around 500 to 600 calories. The NSLP also has regulations concerning the types of foods that can be sold by student organizations such as the Student Store. Foods and beverages sold by the Student Store and other student organizations cannot also be sold by FUSD and cannot be a Food of Minimum Nutritional Value (a food that has less than five percent of the Recommended Daily Allowance for eight nutrients) or a food specified by NSLP such as gum and marshmallows.
View school food nutrition facts online at
www.fusdcafes.org/?page=menus
Passing New Foods All foods and beverages sold by CLIK Vending, the company that operates the vending machines, and L2 at the Student Store must comply with the FUSD Smart Snack guidelines, be considered acceptable by the California Project Lean Competitive Food Standards Calculator, and differ from existing foods sold by FUSD. In addition to these guidelines, L2 and CLIK Vending must also obey specific non-FUSD organization rules such as not selling hot or unpackaged food. According to Student Store Head Junior Raymond Yin, once L2 has verified that a new product adheres to all the policies, the item must be approved by the MSJ business office and Activities Director Ben Breazeale. Items that require special handling such as ice cream bars must also be approved by FUSD.
About 100 purchases are made at the Student Store per day.
6% 7%
11% 38%
14% 23% 0
1
2
Do you feel that school food has enough variety?
How many days per week do you purchase food? 3
5
4
Yes 27.5% No 72.5%
What do you wish to see more of in school food? Number of Responses
Due to FUSD’s new food regulations, the Smoke Signal is conducting an investigative report into the behind-the-scenes processes of how school food reaches students. Student responses were taken from a survey via Facebook from November 29 to December 4. A total of 201 responses were recorded.
114
100 47
61
60
staff writer jessica jen
The kitchen at MSJ prepares food for all the elementary schools in MSJ’s attendance area.
orders and write out checks to snack and beverage companies. Once an order has been delivered, a L2 member retrieves it and restocks the Student Store. The frequency of how often a food or beverage is restocked depends on its sales, and can range from once every two to three days to once every one to two weeks. MSJ has three vending machines, two in the gym quad and one in the B-Wing, which are operated by CLIK Vending. A CLIK Vending employee comes to MSJ every other school day to refill and service the vending machines.
MSJ sells about 230 cafeteria lunches per day.
How satisfied are you with 23% school food in general? 1%
32%
22% 22% Very Satisfied Satisfied Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Very Dissatisfied
What Pricing Food pricing is evaluated as 50 percent of the criteria when FUSD bids with their suppliers. are your FUSD uses the CA Department of Education’s online Paid Lunch Equity Requirement and Calculathoughts on tion Tool to determine the pricing of school food items. In addition, the USDA commodities school food program determines the range of food prices based on the prices that result from the bids with prices? food suppliers. The pricing of food in a school district depends on including the meal participation percentage, the type of storage that the district offers, and whether the district has a central kitchen. The USDA also takes into account the number of students served food to decide on school district budgets allotted to nutrition. These two functions create the range of prices that the school district can charge, but the school board votes on the final prices. L2 typically sets the prices of the snacks and beverages sold at the Student Store to within 25 cents of their actual price. However, prices are occasionally adjusted to meet supply and demand. For example, L2 is currently discounting the price of their ice cream bars in order to make up for the reduction in their demand during winter. All of the Student Store’s profits are given to ASB and used to fund events such as Walk to School Day and the Color Run. Similar to L2, CLIK Vending determines its prices based off of the current market conditions and the company’s own expenses. Though the majority of the vending machines’ profits is given to CLIK Vending, a portion of the profits is given to FUSD.
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