Revolution Foods clients get bit by higher costs of fresher food

October 27, 1:55 PMSF Education ExaminerCaroline Grannan

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As a longtime veteran of school food advocacy, I know that the overwhelming barrier to improving cafeteria meals is lack of funding. Newcomers to the cause pop up at times to say that it’s not money – all it takes is “the will.”

Wrong! It takes the money.

(I mean, extrapolate that to other areas of life. There are things I can’t afford, like a Mediterranean cruise or Botox treatments – and I can’t afford them no matter how much I have “the will.” Well, unless I trade off other things, like maybe my kids’ college savings. Similarly, schools could put more money into meals too, if they just took it away from classrooms.)

Anyway, because this facet of school food advocacy comes up so often, I’m following Revolution Foods pretty closely. This private vendor is getting national publicity with its efforts to improve school food, making it fresher and more wholesome. Revolution’s publicity seems to dance around the issue that fresher and more wholesome food costs more.

I would love to see fresher and more wholesome school food, but I do not love the ongoing drumbeat of claims that all it takes is “the will.” Every time that claim is made, in at least a tiny way it works against efforts to get the needed increased funding to genuinely improve school food.

Now we learn that Revolution’s highly publicized move into Santa Cruz school cafeterias is stumbling – because it turns out the food costs more than projected. And I just confirmed a rumor that Palo Alto schools have dropped Revolution Foods because of the cost.

Here’s part of a news story on the Santa Cruz situation.

Santa Cruz Schools seeks savings in food, special education programs
By J.M. BROWN
Posted: 10/22/2009 01:30:15 AM PDT

SANTA CRUZ -- Trustees for Santa Cruz City Schools received two eyebrow-raising reports Wednesday about the cost of its food service and special education programs.

The district's new nutrition director, Jamie Smith, said the food services budget is gobbling up even more cash than before the board hired Oakland vendor Revolution Foods this year to replace largely processed school food with fresh, often locally farmed produce and meats.

However, participation even among those who receive free lunches is down as students adjust to the change. The revenue loss has been exacerbated by erroneous projections made by the district about costs and increases in student participation.

Trustee Cynthia Hawthorne, who supports keeping Revolution Foods for now, said the administration has goofed several times estimating the cost and revenue formulas. Superintendent Gary Bloom acknowledged that "significant errors were made," though he added, "it was clear the numbers were soft" when the contract was approved.

With a food services deficit now projected to grow by $320,000 more than expected by next June, Smith laid out two options for the board to consider soon. The first is to stick with Revolution Foods, which he said could mean cutting half of the food service staff.

Read the rest of the article.