Sustainable school lunches, are they even possible to have
School lunch, pupusa wrapped in alumunium parchement. (Photo: Maxine Salvador, The Puma Prensa)
By Rebecca Almendra, staff writer
No one can escape the negative effects that climate change has brought upon us. However, studies show that the most severe harms from climate change fall disproportionately upon underserved communities. In the 2020 school year, 45.6% of students in Sonoma County qualified for free and reduced price meals, as presented by the California Department of Education. For many of these students, school provided meals are their main source of nutrition. However, the choices offered by most schools are full of overly processed products encased in unnecessary amounts of wasteful packaging. This has left students no choice but to continue adding to pollution and climate change. Like many schools, Maria Carrillo High School does no better job at improving school lunches.
Starting the 2022-2023 school year, California implemented the Universal Meals Program, guaranteeing that any student attending a California public school would have free access to school meals. Any student can grab food from our cafeteria provided they give their school ID number. This move was made to help alleviate food insecurity in the local area while also erasing students’ hesitancy to take a free lunch. Removal of the stigma surrounding free lunches has increased the numbers of students willing to partake. Accessibility to these lunches has tremendously increased. So I decided to take it upon myself to see what our school cafeteria serves as a snack and meal during our break and lunch hour.
Breakfast consisted of some sort of fruit, milk, cereal and a baked good. Lunch options also came with fruit and milk, but also a larger entree that varies daily. Most if not all of these entree options were concealed in crinkly plastic. I’d say most people would agree the quality of the food’s appearance and taste could drastically improve, alongside its low effort and unsustainable packaging. What reason is keeping our district from switching to more sustainable, healthy, and better tasting food options?
It’s important to understand how school funding and budget allocations work concerning school lunches. In California, schools are ultimately funded by the state through reimbursements to schools whether lunches are given for free, at a discount, or at a cost. The amount of money they are reimbursed depends on the amount of meals they give out. Being able to provide school lunches to our students will hopefully never be a concern given the financial support, surely money shouldn’t be a major issue for our district to find healthier and sustainable alternatives. It just requires time and movement. It’s merely a matter of time and willingness to make the change happen. SRCS schools have the facilities to prepare food on-site; however, the majority of it is not. Edward Burke, SRCS Food Services director says it is a matter of staff shortage, especially since COVID-19. “The significant barrier is our need for staff to prepare food from scratch and serve meals,” he says, adding, “We are transitioning to prepare more food from scratch at the central kitchen to serve the students of SRCS better.”
SRCS, at this current moment, cannot afford to hire the required amount of staff, it seems. We get frozen, dry packaged goods because it’s most convenient. People want work, so finding staff available for these positions should not be an issue, but no one is going to be willing to work for an unlivable wage of $16 an hour. The SRCS has an unused COVID relief grant of $9 million to be exact. Why it is not being used towards understaffed faculty, I don’t know.
The underlying issue restricting further mobility and progression in the SRCS district is allocation of funds. Providing sustainable lunches is very much possible. Take for example our neighbors down south in the Berkeley Unified School District. With a similar student population number of 9,409 students compared to SRCS’s population of 10,394, BUSD’s school lunch situation is drastically different from ours. As their website states, “Berkeley Unified has a School Lunch Initiative (SLI), which has two primary goals: to serve nutritious and delicious, freshly prepared meals using locally grown food to all of our students and to educate children in kitchen, garden and academic classrooms about their food choices and the impact those choices have on their health, the community and the environment.” Most food items being served are prepared right in their schools kitchen, and if not, sourced by local producers. Produce and meats also come from local markets and vendors. Not to mention, this school lunch initiative is completely free and was instituted in 2007, over 15 years ago. The food choices they are providing to their students are not only healthy, but also environmentally sustainable. Several schools have made sure that plates and silverware are reusable and washable rather than disposable as well as composting waste within their own gardens. It’s clear that providing nutritious and eco-friendly food as a dual pair is possible.
Students that rely on these types of meals don’t have access to organic, GMO-free groceries from Whole Foods every week. Frozen, packaged and processed foods is most likely what students consume because it's what they can afford. I emphasize the importance of improvement moving forward for this very reason. We have a considerably large population of students who consume this food. Our students deserve better than reheated, packaged foods filled with grease and empty calories. This is not a project that should be pushed back by administration and paperwork. If healthier, more sustainable food is available and accessible, our youth should be the first to receive it.