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Lunch
School lunch menu and info on SFUSD Web site
Meals still frozen in the center are a recurring problem at some elementary sites, so much so that I wrote up a lengthy report (see below, assuming yahoo doesn't eat it) on the subject, as well as two proposed solutions, to have available for such situations. Unfortunately, since the report was written, it has been determined that one solution - the consolidation of SNS operations at the San Miguel site - will not be feasible for 18 months, because of ADA work being done at neighboring James Denman Middle School, which will put several hundered students into temporary quarters in the San Miguel bungalows next door to their school. As that is the very site which was proposed for the SNS operation, which would bring giant 18 wheeler trucks onto the yard, and as part of the purpose of the move was to get the trucks away from where the kids are, you can see thatthis would not be doable just now.
Nonetheless, there is a lot of valuable information in this report for those who can bear to read through it - just keep in mind that the San Miguel consolidation is not in the cards at this time. The other solution - the pilot of the higher level of Preferred service - is going to start in just a few weeks at Balboa High School, assuming that the necessary electrical upgrade to the site can be completed. Here's the report:
One of the most intractable problems facing Student Nutrition Services (SNS) is the aging equipment in most of the cafeterias and at the production site. The meals served at the majority of SFUSD schools are received by SNS at the production site two days in advance, frozen rock solid. The meals are put into cold storage container units 48 hours before they are to be served, so that they can begin to thaw. The refrigeration unit is set for about 40 degrees, so that the meals will remain within the food safe temperature range while thawing. Meals are picked up from the production site at Visitation Valley MS in the morning by 7am and taken to the schools by a contract delivery service. Once delivered to the schools, the meals go into a rethermalization (or warming) oven, to be warmed to about 160 degrees (again, the food safe temperature.) When this procedure works, the result is that the meals are warmed up and waiting for the students when they come down to the cafeteria for lunch (usually starting about 11:30 or so.)
Unfortunately, there are several points along the way where problems can occur.
Meals are delivered to the production site in a completely frozen state, 48 hours before they will be served. The meals are put onto wire racks which allow air to circulate around them, and loaded into two 20 foot long cold storage units (essentially giant refrigerators) to begin the thawing process. After 48 hours of refrigeration, the meals should no longer be frozen, but will have remained at or below 40 degrees (food safe temperature.) The temperature in the cold storage units is required by federal food safety law to be monitored and recorded every day. Employees doing the monitoring are supposed to report to the central office if the temperature is too warm or too cold, so that adjustments can be made, and a repair visit scheduled if necessary. A daily log is kept of the temperature in the two cold storage units.
There has been a shortage of the wire meal racks used for separating the frozen meals for thawing. Over time, the racks become rusted, break, and have to be discarded. When there are not enough racks available, the meals cannot be stacked in such a way that they are able to thaw adequately within the 48 hour period. This is why the pineapple cups, among other items, have often been served to the students semi frozen, as a kind of pineapple slushy.
SNS has only a minimal budget for new equipment; although the shortage was noticeable in the 2005-06 school year, it was necessary to wait until the start of the 2006-07 year to order any replacement racks, due to no money being available to pay for them. The Purchasing Department is required to follow a process to seek a low bid; this always takes time. Because of the size of the order, the racks had to come from the factory; again, this takes time. New racks were received over the winter break 2006, but an additional order must be placed in order to have enough racks to accommodate 3 days worth of meals. Until enough racks are available to handle the current day's meals, plus the meals for the following 48 hours, there may continue to be problems with thawing.
There have been several episodes this year when the internal temperature in the cooling units has dropped to 15-25 degrees, requiring a visit from the repair company to reset the thermostat. The safety of the food is not compromised, but the thawing process never takes place when the food is kept this cold. The result is that meals are delivered to the sites still frozen solid. Employees at the production site are required to monitor the temperature daily and are supposed to report any variance to the SNS central office. This is a point at which problems can arise, if the thermostat malfunctions and the SNS central office is not notified of the problem.
The responsibility for picking the thawed meals up from the production site and getting them delivered to the schools in time to be warmed up before lunch lies with the contract delivery service. Sixteen drivers arrive at the Visitation Valley MS site beginning at 7 am to pick up their meals and deliver them. The schools with the earliest lunch start times are supposed to get their meals first, with schools with later lunch periods getting their meals at the end of the route. It takes the drivers about 2-21/2 hours to complete their route, assuming all drivers show up for work.
When the contract delivery service has problems with their workers showing up to drive, or when a driver quits unexpectedly, this leaves more schools to be covered by the remaining drivers. In such a case, the schools at the end of the route will have their lunches delivered later than usual. If the caf worker has failed to preheat the oven, or if the meals being delivered are still partially frozen, this compounds the problem. Staffing at the contract delivery service is beyond the control of SNS. When meals are delivered late, SNS can and does complain to the delivery service management; however, replacing the delivery service with another company in mid contract is not feasible.
The cost of the delivery service will rise when the current contract expires at the end of this fiscal year; the price has been locked in by contract for the past 4 years, but the rising cost of fuel during that time guarantees that the price of the service will increase when a new contract is negotiated.
Once delivered to the individual schools, the racks of meals go into the rethermalization oven to be warmed to 160 degrees before being served. At some schools with early delivery, the ovens are turned on by the delivery driver, who then loads the racks of meals into the ovens to warm. At other schools, the caf worker turns the ovens on while getting ready for breakfast service. All caf workers are supposed to turn their ovens on to preheat if their delivery driver has not arrived by the end of the breakfast period. This allows the ovens to preheat and be ready to receive the meals when they are delivered (typically by 9-9:15 am for a school which begins lunch service at 11, for example.) When the ovens are working as they are supposed to, there is plenty of time to bring the properly thawed meals to 160 degrees and hold them above 140 degrees (the food safe temperature) until lunch service begins.
When the meals are not sufficiently thawed before delivery to the schools, they can end up being served to the kids still in a partially frozen state, because the rethermalization ovens are old, cranky, and not designed to bring a rock solid frozen meal to 160 degrees in the hour or two between delivery and meal service. A commercial convection oven can bring a rock solid popsicle of a meal to 160 degrees in just 30-45 minutes, depending on the meal density; it would take a rethermalization oven about 3 hours to achieve the same result. Drivers have been advised that they must set the oven temp higher on days when they are delivering meals which have not been fully thawed; this can speed up the warming process somewhat. However, so long as SNS is dependent on using the old rethermalization ovens, there are likely to continue to be problems. The ovens have been in service for12 years old and use their electronic technology dates to 1995; as the ovens continue to age, repairs will become more frequent (this is already happening) and more costly, and parts will become more difficult to obtain. Money spent on repairing aging equipment is money then not available to improve the quality of the food served.
The problems detailed above can be addressed by two different strategies. Currently the SNS central office is located near Civic Center, several miles from the Visitation Valley production site. The Director may not learn of problems with the refrigeration until meals are delivered to schools still frozen, at which point it is too late to prevent students from being served a meal which has not been fully heated that day. When a driver does not show up at the production site to pick up his meal delivery, again the Director is sometimes the last to know. The production site and SNS central office should be consolidated and moved to the San Miguel site (formerly Leadership); there are numerous advantages to such a move:
The second strategy, which addresses the aging equipment and problems with the contract delivery service, is to work more closely with Preferred Meal Systems, the district's current meal provider for all of the schools which are not cooking schools. This company offers several levels of service; at the highest level, they provide and install their own kitchen equipment at each school – oven, freezer and refrigerator – and provide maintenance. Then, instead of shipping meals to the production site, they deliver all meals directly to each school site, eliminating the need for the contract delivery service. There could be additional power requirements at the school sites, and some modification of the cafeteria/kitchen space to accommodate the Preferred equipment, and there would be increased labor costs at each school site. A pilot is planned to see if the savings will offset the increased labor.