Revolution Foods lunches enjoyed by students
The term “school lunch” is often met with snickers and eye-rolling as many of us think of hockey puck hamburgers and Franken-nuggets.
As if serving fresh, nutritionally loaded school lunches that children will eat isn’t tricky enough, consider the challenge facing many charter schools across the Unites States: No kitchen or facility space to serve food.
Some charter schools have solved the dilemma by running a daily caravan of volunteers to the nearest sandwich shop, or offering a rotating menu of fast food. Most such situations results in a lunch offering which is less than desirable from a nutritional, cost effective, or logistics stand point.
Please welcome Revolution Foods.
Revolution Foods launched in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2006 by Kristin Richmond and Kirsten Tobey, two eco-conscious former teachers and school founders. Their vision was to create school food service that would assure that all students have access to healthy, fresh food on a daily basis.
Richmond and Toby partnered with Executive Chef Amy Klein, and designed a school nutrition program which only used local foods that are void of controversial hormone and chemical treatments, but still appeal to both parents and kids.
Today, Revolution Foods serves fresh lunches at various schools in Colorado, Washington DC, and Northern and Southern California. Lunches are delivered warm or cold (depending on the menu item) directly to the schools. Orders are handled online directly with the parent customer, a little fact which has many administrators who have been doubling as lunch bill collectors stampeding for the Revolution school sign-up forms.
Revolution Foods is an approved vendor for the Federal Subsidized Lunch Program as well.
Veteran parents who have spent years trying to feed kids green leafy vegetables and roughage might be wondering if the kiddos actually eat these healthier options, or if it all lands in the garbage pail.
“We ask the kids what items they want to see on the menu,” explains Kirsten Tobey. “We also eat lunch with the kids at each school we serve, at least once a month. Then we take the feedback and incorporate what works and what needs adjusted.”
The company also provides nutritional education and fun learning based activities for schools that are interested.
“We teach the kids what good food is and how to find it,” adds Tobey.
Revolution Foods find their good foods among local farmers and vendors such as Whole Foods. The company is also eco-friendly and teaches recycling practices and offers nearly all decomposable and re-usable goods.
For more info: For more information about Revolution Foods, please visit www.RevFoods.com or call 510-596-9024.
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Comments
Revolution Foods' goal of serving fresher, healthier, kid-friendly meals is admirable. Unfortunately, the problem is that its meals cost more. In my district, San Francisco Unified, two charter schools -- City Arts & Tech and Metro Arts & Tech -- both had to stop using Revolution and switched back to food provided by the district Student Nutrition Program because of Revolution's higher costs. The same happened with two districts in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area -- Palo Alto Unified and Santa Cruz Unified.
In general, the problem with school meal programs is not that they're run by clueless idiots who want to serve hockey puck hamburgers and Franken nuggets. It's that they are running on so little money -- and the federal reimbursement for low-income students is so low -- that they have to serve carnival-style foods because that's all they can afford. Unfortunately, Revolution Foods hasn't solved that problem.
Santa Cruz City Schools is still serving lunches provided by Revolution Foods. The middle schools were serving a combination of staff-cooked and Revolution Foods meals and have now completed the transition -- as planned -- to staff cooked meals.
The plan was and always has been an interim step: Revolution Foods was contracted to provide healthy meals until the district had the management and facilities to return to scratch cooking. The hiring of a chef in Food Services has enabled the district to accelerate that transition.
Yes, it has been expensive. Yes, it would be challenging to sustain indefinitely without higher reimbursement rates from the federal government.
But Santa Cruz kids are eating healthy food today and we have high hopes for greater funds based on the encouraging testimony of the USDA just yesterday.
Why are you so quick to condemn Revolution Foods? In this article, they are a very good fit for charter schools. Most charters do not have access to food preparation facilities and many end up contracting with restaurants or delis -- expensive options that don't qualify for federal reimbursement. So it's not a good option for SF schools. But their very existence is driving up quality from vendors like Chartwells and raising standards in districts. Isn't that a good thing?
"Their very existence is driving up quality and raising standards?"
What next - Revolution Foods cures cancer and creates world peace?
Parents, teachers, students and concerned community members have been working for better school food for a decade, long before Revolution Foods came on the scene. Even the federal government has helped by requiring since 2006 that every school district which participates in the national school lunch program must have a wellness policy setting standards for all food available at school. This is what is causing big outfits like Chartwells and Sodexho to improve their offerings, and what is forcing school districts to raise their standards, not Revolution Foods. They are just a meal provider, folks, not the Second Coming.
I didn't condemn or even criticize Revolution Foods except for one thing: I DO criticize them for putting out the false information that they're no more expensive than other vendors. That's simply not true, and it's wrong to put out false information. But all I did here is point out that two charter schools in San Francisco and two entire school districts in the greater San Francisco Bay Area had to cancel Revolution Foods as a vendor because of Revolution's higher costs.
As an self-professed supporter of school choice, there is little surprise that I am also a fan of choice of lunch vendors. As the article points out many charters have limited offers and Revolution Foods offers an alternative to fast food and other nutritionally and cost-terrible options. If you compare the cost of Rev Food and BK, there is not much difference, but the nutritional gap is significant.
Also, some schools do not want to be in the food service business. Outsourced food vendors take the time, cost, and headache of menu planning, food purchasing and prep, (sometimes) money handling, and acting as a bill collector with their attending families--out of the hands of the educators. This is
welcomed by many.
P.S. Not trying to pooh-pooh on district lunch services. There are charter schools who subscribe to this service and are very happy. But that's not an option for all charters in all districts, and sometimes not the arrangement preferred by all schools.
The ideal would be for lunch to be scratch-cooked by loving hands onsite, of course. But the reality is that school districts often have to outsource to vendors. That's nothing new.
In our school district, the salad bars are the shining stars of the lunch service right now, and they're outsourced to
Preferred Meal Systems, also a private vendor.
Comparing the cost of Revolution and BK is irrelevant, except in a district with almost no low-income kids. What's relevant is that Revolution costs considerably more than the government reimbursement for low-income students, so is not affordable in many school districts. Revolution's PR obfuscates that issue, which means we have parents clamoring for it, and our busy Student Nutrition staff has to attend to explaining the financial realities when they need to be putting their energy into providing our kids with the best possible food.
Caroline, Comparing Rev Foods costs to BK is relevant when it is BK that's being served for lunch. I am not joking. There are charter schools that have had such a hard time finding lunch solutions that they rotate fast food companies. My son experienced this in first grade. One day there was Chick-fillet, another was BK, Fridays for Pizza, the healthiest day was Subway, and I can't recall the last vendor.
Our school has thankfully found a better solution. And I am very pleased that school lunch is a hot topic. It's how change comes about.
True, re a school that's serving BK for lunch. I would certainly take Revolution Foods, whose selection (which I haven't personally tried) sounds very appealing! But in the big picture, your school isn't serving low-income kids who need and qualify for subsidized meals (or not more than a tiny handful of them, anyway). For schools that are, Revolution costs far, far more than the federal reimbursement provides once you take labor and other costs of running a cafeteria into account.
How Rev Foods compare costs wise with every other program, I can't say. My point is that many charter schools have very limiting lunch options. Without a kitchen it is very tricky. Revolution Foods is one choice for several such schools.
For districts with a high number of low-income students, what matters is Revolution's cost in relation to the National School Lunch Program subsidy. That is, if Revolution costs more than the subsidy allows for the food, the district has to cover the difference. That makes it impossible in our district, because Revolution costs significantly more. (The total is about $2.70, but that has to cover labor and other costs of running a cafeteria.)
In charter schools many "cafeteria workers" are volunteers, so there is no double labor cost. And without a kitchen...well, there is no extra cost of running a cafeteria.
It is my understanding that Rev Foods is working on this issue. As you are aware, cost is an issue for the same reasons in introducing improvements of all sorts, and not unique to Rev Foods as a company.
Have those "volunteer" cafeteria workers taken food safety training, so that they are aware that they need to keep hot foods at 135 degrees or above and cold foods at 41 degrees or below, between the time the food is delivered by Revolution and the time it is served to students? Do they know how to assess the temperature and freshness of food when it is delivered? If hot food falls below 135 degrees do they have the means to rehat it to the 165 degrees required by food safe procedures, or do you rely on those thermal bags to keep the food safely hot (hint - they don't work)? Do the volunteers have the means to reheat (ie - some kind of warming unit) and if so, the means to clean the warming unit between uses? Are all of these equipment and utility costs free along with the "volunteer" labor?
@Just wondering:
I don't think any of us can speak for all the volunteer workers across the country. Not all the lunches are hot either. In some cases it's making sure the right kiddo gets the right sandwich box, wiping tables, sweeping floors, and emptying the recycling.
Just be aware that just because the lunch is not a "hot" lunch doesn't mean it is okay to sit at room temperature after delivery. There are very strict rules which govern food safety for schools, and since Revolution is only responsible for the food up to the moment it is delivered to the school, the liability thereafter rests with the school.
"Real" cafeteria workers do possess actual skills, and do receive actual training, in order to be able to assure that the food served to students is safe for them to eat. It may save the school money to use parent volunteers, but I feel better knowing that my child's school has people working in the cafeteria who have taken training in food safety.
@Just wondering,
Absolutely agree. Just being careful to make general claims on behalf of Rev Foods, volunteers, and cafeteria workers in general. Food safety is clearly an important issue and I cannot speak for how every situation across the US is handled.
Would think that a company in the biz like Rev Foods would be more likely to know and adhere to these guidelines than when a parent group goes out to make fast food run as a meal substitute.
Look at the photo you chose to accompany your Rev Foods story. It shows happy kids eating what is clearly a hot lunch, accompanied by milk. If RF is such a great option for charter schools with no kitchen facilities, and the schools can only afford the higher cost of RF because they have no paid cafeteria staff, no kitchen facilities, and no associated costs, who paid for the equipment to reheat the meal, and to keep the milk chilled until it was served? Or are those happy kids eating a meal which sat out at room temp for several hours between delivery and service?
You have taken a very pro-RF stance based on what is perhaps an incomplete understanding of how it is that charters are able to afford the higher cost of those RF meals. If the only way they can afford it is to hand over 100% of the government reimbursement for free school lunches (and then some) to RF, leaving nothing to pay for equipment to keep the food at safe temps, or staff trained to do so, isn't that a problem?
@Just wondering. Please don't misunderstand that ALL charter schools have no kitchen or paid cafeteria staff. Every charter school situation is different (even in the lunchroom) and therefor it is good to have options in lunch services. RF is one of them.
So what you are saying is that Revolution Foods can be a safe choice for SOME of one type of school (charters), IF they are lucky enough to have kitchen facilities and the money to have paid staff trained in food safety, plus enough extra funding to cover the cost of Revolution Foods meals, which gobbles up the entire government reimbursement and more. Fair enough.
But according to your article, the "vision" of the Revolution founders "was to create school food service that would assure that all students have access to healthy, fresh food on a daily basis."
ALL students - not just those who attend a few well-funded charters with kitchens and trained staff. HEALTHY food - not food which has been sitting out at room temperature for hours between delivery and service.
This is the biggest (some might say the only) problem with Revolution Foods' model - the vast majority of public schools can't afford it!
@Just Wondering
Not sure that this conversation is productive.
I am actually not trying to say Rev Foods is or isn't a good option for one type or charter or the other. Frankly, that's not my decision. This article is designed to inform readers of healthy food options that do exist. Rev Foods is one of them.
Questions about Rev Foods, food handling etc. are best answered by the company www.revfoods.com.
Thank you.
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