Sharing space on a compostable food tray with crisp pineapple chunks, chilled honeydew slices, and cucumber coins sprinkled with paprika, the recent Friday night fare at Adams Elementary School showcased a formidable centerpiece of chili-style nachos topped with grated cheddar and (optional) rough-chopped jalapeños. As always, kids and disabled adults ate for free and parents paid $4 per plate, with no restrictions on where they lived or went to school or their socioeconomic status.
“That’s the thrill of using federal dollars in this way,” said Nancy Weiss, director of Food Services at Santa Barbara Unified School District. “There’s very little control we have over where our tax dollars go. When I see an opportunity to use federal dollars to feed kids — not just at school, but in the evenings and summer, too — and to employ hardworking folks in our community, that’s the thrill of a win-win.”
For every free plate served, the district is reimbursed $3.23 through the National School Lunch Program. Since each plate costs the district an average of $1.15 to fill with scratch-cooked, mostly organic, and mostly locally grown food, Weiss ladles the gravy back into Food Services, which now has 105 full-time employees with benefits, up from about 60 mostly part-time employees when she took over in 2008 and started phasing out frozen foodstuffs and prepackaged lunches.
