The Observation Deck

Is the organization that runs the food in the schools private? Are they non-profit or profit? I am told that they sell ice cream, chips and cookies at lunch because that is their only profit. What I found disturbing this year at Hayes, is that one day my five year old, full day kindergarten child lost a nickel of his $1.50 lunch. They refused to serve him. Hayes developed a policy to give a child without a lunch a peanut butter sandwich. At that time there was no drink involved but that has changed since then and they now get a milk. I was outraged to say the least. It has always been my experience that if a child was short on lunch money, they would write it down and the parents could pay that week or month. I guess they threw that out because they said some parents were not paying. I would think there would be solutions to this, like to at least give one lunch worth of credit to a child before he or she is cut off. We are talking five and six year old children. It just does not appear that the people running the food have the childrens best interest at heart.

I have read research on communities that serve healthy lunches and know that the city of NY outlawed serving food with hydrogenated oil, so wonder if that research would help change the lunches here.

Thank you for trying Annie and for staying positive.

School foodservice departments are like any other department in a school. They need to stay "in the black". Selling sweets, or other snacks are considered "competetive foods" to the USDA school lunch program. Many foodservice operations sell those foods to make money (keep them afloat). Some foods are not allowed to be sold during lunch due to nutrition restrictions. The nutrition restrictions are horribly outdated and need to be updated. For example, legally, a school foodserviec may sell a cupcake or ice cream, but not hard candy. Sounds strange, yes, but that's the way the law was written.
School districts may vary, but typically a "business director/business affairs officer" type person is the administrator over the department. These people control/approve the capital expenditures (ie. buying new equipment) and oversee the foodservice director's spending. In most cases, the business director is responsible for balancing their own budget. The policy about providing lunch to children if they have no money is a school foodservice director decision. In most cases, policies can be created by the FSD, but then have to be approved by the business director and or the school board, depending on the nature of the policy. The PTA could definitely push to have this policy changed!!
The WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 mandated that all school districts develop wellness policies. These policies had to be board approved. I have not read the Lakewood School's wellness policy, but I know that they have one. This would be something else I would push for through the PTA. Maybe someone could request a copy?? It would be great to see the implementation guidelines that were created (part of the requirement by law), and where Lakewood Schools are at.....