LAUSD Embraces New Supper Meal Program

An after-school supper program begun by the Los Angeles Unified School District in September is now serving 70,000 suppers a day at 540 sites across the district. The program has proved highly successful, according to Director of Foodservices David Binkle, and the district is in the process of reviewing proposals from several meal providers that would allow it to serve freshly-prepared supper meals as opposed to the shelf-stable meals it has used since the program started.

“We began the program with shelf stable components so we could carefully control costs, waste and leftovers,” he says. “It let us standardize counts until we had some experience with the program. It also minimized refrigerated storage issues,” while the district evaluated participation rates and other aspects of the program, he adds.

Refrigerated storage is in short supply in many schools. What does exist must also be used for lunch and breakfast in the classroom programs. But in keeping with the district’s new policy of providing freshly-prepared food whenever possible, LAUSD says it will begin sourcing fresh components before the end of the year.

“Getting the fresh food proposals firmed up will help us improve the integrity of the program,” Binkle says.

Presently, the shelf stable meal components are provided by Preferred Foods and delivered to LAUSD sites by Goldstar Foods, which had one of the winning proposals to be a categorical supplier to the district (go to http://bit.ly/RPnaEk). For fresh food components, LAUSD is evaluating proposals from Preferred, Five Star Gourmet, Fresh & Easy (a regional supermarket chain) and Revolution Foods. Program site managers will be able to order either shelf stable kits or fresh kits, depending on their situation.

Participating in the program has helped the district address its foodservice program deficit and move to an overall break-even financial position, Binkle says,  partly because it helps share the system’s overhead costs. Supper meals are also reimbursed at a higher rate than lunch meals. The reimbursement is $3.09 per meal, and they are also eligible for an additional 22.5-cent cash reimbursement in lieu of commodities.

The supper meal program was originally authorized by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. It was designed to ensure that at-risk children under 18 receive nutritious evening meals in areas with many low-income households and where parents may work two jobs or odd hours.

The program initially had been rolled out in only 13 states, but as of last January, USDA expanded to all states. Officially part of CACFP (the Child and Adult Care Food Program), it is administered by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services division separately from the school lunch and breakfast programs.

Among other requirements, the meals can be offered only at schools serving areas in which at least 50 percent or more of enrolled children are eligible for free or reduced price school meals. The schools also must be operating afterschool educational or enrichment programs in a supervised environment.

Like the school and lunch programs, meals must meet specific nutritional requirements (You can read about other program specifics in this publication.