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Child Nutrition Services reports steady participation, local sourcing and new grants
Summary
Director Jamie Phillips reported on meal participation, produce sourcing, grant awards and infrastructure improvements, including $123,000 in commodity allocations and a kitchen generator purchase funded by a kitchen infrastructure grant.
The Del Mar Union School District heard an update Wednesday from Child Nutrition Services Director Jamie Phillips on school meals, sourcing, grants and recent program changes.
Phillips told the board the district served just over 111,000 breakfasts and about 316,000 lunches in the 2024–25 year; average daily participation figures were about 620 for breakfast and roughly 1,757 for lunch. “For breakfast, we served a little over a 111,000,” Phillips said.
Nut graf: The central kitchen has expanded local and organic purchases, joined specialty pilot programs, and used several grants and commodity allocations to offset costs; staff also reported infrastructure investments to protect food supply during outages.
Phillips described a recent culinary-council trip to Central California farms and participation in a pilot “broccoli chip” taste test through a national culinary council; the district was one of four participating districts. He said the district receives a $123,000 annual commodity allocation based on meal counts and directed $70,000 of that toward Department of Defense (DOD) local produce purchases (California-based produce), $22,000 for chicken products, and $33,000 to a local-food-for-schools grant. Phillips said he also secured an additional $42,000 in commodity funds reallocated from other districts’ unused balances.
The department completed its five‑year CDE (California Department of Education) administrative review in May with one minor correction; the reviewer commended the district’s organization and compliance. Phillips said the district is now purchasing a backup generator for the outdoor freezer using a kitchen-infrastructure grant to avoid large losses during power outages.
The district reported donating 10,790 pounds of food in April (primarily post-production/share-line food) and serving approximately 40,000 pounds of California produce across the year, including about 6,900 pounds sourced from San Diego County.
Phillips also discussed sustainability measures: the district replaced plastic sporks with compostable agave utensils, switched to compostable field-trip kits and paper bags for field trips, and is auditing food waste year to year. He said the nutrition department performs regular audits and tracks donation volumes as one metric of reduced waste.
Ending: Board members thanked Phillips for the report; the district will continue to monitor participation, grant allocations and infrastructure work ahead of the new school year.
