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Child Nutrition reports universal meals, new composter and hydroponics; feeding about 2,600 students daily
Summary
The district’s Child Nutrition director reported on universal free meals under the Community Eligibility Provision, a food-composting unit called OSCAR that reduced waste, a hydroponic system for salad bars and field-trip nutrition education.
Christy Summers, the district’s Child Nutrition lead, updated the board on child-nutrition operations, reporting that the district is feeding roughly 2,600 students per day and that the Community Eligibility Provision (universal free meals) has improved reimbursement levels.
Summers described savings and service changes: the central kitchen and school cafeterias now route kitchen waste to an on-site composter known as OSCAR, which staff said shrinks food waste to about one-quarter of its original volume and produces a soil-like output used by community gardeners. The presenter said that combined lunches and breakfasts represent roughly 468,000 lunches and about 80,000 breakfasts per school year, with a summer-service program accounting for roughly 6,000 meals.
The nutrition program also acquired a hydroponic system to grow lettuces, cucumbers and herbs that are used on middle-school salad bars and in recipes; staff said the system supports nutrition-education field trips. Summers said National School Breakfast Week in March will be an outreach opportunity and described an expanded set of central-kitchen videos and field-trip activities that expose students to kitchen operations.
Board members thanked the nutrition team; no formal action was taken on the update.
