Saturday, August 20, 2005
Schools offer more than food for thought
CHERYL FERN
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
CORRESPONDENT
The Volusia County School Board has decreed that any public school student who wants one should get a complimentary breakfast and the kids are eating it up.
Christine Farneti, director of the school district’s School Way Cafe food program, estimates she and her staff served more than 9,000 breakfasts and 31,000 lunches in the first five days of school.
“The cafe would not be the success it is today if it were not for the wonderful managers, chefs, servers and record keepers who implement the district office’s ideas,” she said.
Before Farneti became director of School Way Café, she said there was not much attention paid to school lunches, let alone complimentary breakfasts.
Today, certified dietician Evelyn Klironomos plans all the meals and Costa Magoulas, a certified executive chef, tests the recipes.
Each school follows the same menu and continuous training and testing takes place at the district office in DeLand.
When Farneti started 12 years ago, she wanted to improve the image of the school lunch program. Now more fruits and vegetables are being offered to the students and a lunch salad is always available.
The cafe’s mission statement asserts: “We are all individually dedicated to building a foundation for learning for our students and community by providing caring support, good nutrition and quality service.”
At W.F. Burns-Oak Hill Elementary School, a variety of breakfast foods is served daily to more than 100 of its 212 pupils. The children can choose from breakfast burritos, cereal, French toast, pancakes and more.
“Since the breakfasts have been advertised to the parents, more students have been participating,” Principal Linda Reader said. “Ten to 15 percent of the students bring their lunches at W.F. Burns-Oak Hill.”
And lunchtime is not just for eating. Cathy Moree, the school’s dining room aide, often brings in games and books for the children to use after lunch.
The manager of the Oak Hill School Way Cafe, Krista Hayes, has an official staff of two — Danette Allen and Denise Benson, who assist Hayes behind the counter.
But several others help out in the dining room. Between two and four adults are on hand during breakfast and lunchtime.
Bruce Benson and Moree assist the children with anything they need, from ketchup to opening milk containers or simply helping a new pupil feel welcome.
Hayes applied for a position with the School Board after her son started school six years ago. She began as an intern with the School Way Cafe.
She said children seem to prefer tacos and pizza to anything else on the menu. The cafe even offers a triple-decker peanut butter sandwich, which includes two pieces of white bread and one piece of wheat.
The School Way Cafe also has introduced whole wheat breadand fresh-baked wheat rolls with lunch.
Facilitators are phasing out deep fryers in secondary schools and are replacing them with equipment that produces a high-quality baked fry. Schools under construction and schools to be remodeled have no plans to include fryers.
The cafe program also is eliminating whole milk in favor of 2 percent and lower and official constantly review all foods and beverages offered from vending machines.
The menus are on a five-week rotation schedule unless food is received from the federal government, which is worked into the menu.
The School Board gets food donated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and strict rules apply to the use of these items. The dietician has a computer program that tracks the nutritional criteria and makes sure it meets the target set forth by the USDA. If not, they must keep changing the menu until the target is met.
In addition to free breakfasts for all, there are programs available for children to receive free or reduced-cost lunch. Applications may be picked up at any school in Volusia County or online at www.volusia.k12.fl.us. The information is confidential. Pin numbers are used instead of cash, and parents may pre-pay for lunches, too.
More information about theSchool Way Cafe program is available online at www.volusia.k12.fl.us/swcafe/aboutus.htm.
Serial story: THE MOUSE AND THE MOTORCYCLE