Two go-getter moms nabbed a $150,000 grant to improve the food service program at Shoreline Unified School District last month. Marianne Recher and Maggie Beth Levinger, who discovered the state’s Farm to School Incubator Grant Program, are working with district administrators to use the funds for staffing, ingredients, equipment, education and menu research and development.
Shoreline covers roughly 235 square miles from Olema to Bodega Bay, leading to hurdles when it comes to food transportation and equity between schools. It’s also a socioeconomically disadvantaged district, with 61 percent of the 500 students qualifying for free or reduced school meals. Due to California’s new universal meals program, the district is required to provide breakfast and lunch daily to all students. But although the area is agricultural, few of the food offerings are locally sourced.
“Nearly 90 percent of Shoreline’s land is devoted to agriculture, whether it’s dairies, creameries, ranches or farms,” said Ms. Recher, who has a first grader at Inverness School. “We were baffled to see the state of our children’s food as it stands.”
Efforts to improve the district’s food program began years ago. In 2014, trustees approved a policy developed by the wellness advisory committee that identified food service initiatives as one of eight categories that could benefit student wellness. Reducing processed food, using organic ingredients, highlighting culturally significant meals and erasing stigmas associated with eligibility for free and reduced-price meals are among the policy’s goals. The policy also set a target of purchasing 25 percent of district food products from within 100 miles by the 2015-2016 school year. Although the district did not meet that goal, it has made progress.
This year, Shoreline was awarded a state grant of $200,000 to hire a Director of Community School, a position that will identify policies and partnerships that bridge the gap between parent and district engagement through afterschool and summer programs. Next year, Shoreline aims to get a grant triple the size to implement parent engagement workshops and adult education courses. Monies from the grant could continue the progress made through the Farm to School Incubator grant, which is administered by the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Currently, Shoreline gets 62 percent of its food from Sysco, with the rest coming from three local vendors: Marin-Sonoma Produce, which sources from Arizona and Mexico during winter months; Cotati Food Service, which buys from local and national markets; and Clover Sonoma.
District superintendent Adam Jennings said that before the pandemic, salad bars were expanded and cafeterias conducted taste-testing to gauge the popularity of foods. But when in-person classes began again, the momentum was lost. “As [Covid protocols] have relaxed, we have been slow to pick that momentum back up, which is leading us to the sense of urgency that we feel now,” he said.
Shoreline’s new grant is focused on expanding or establishing farm-to-school programs that coordinate nutrition with educational opportunities for students; incorporate California-grown produce, culturally relevant and climate-smart dishes; and decrease processed foods in the cafeteria.
Funds can be used to expand staff, and Ms. Recher and Ms. Levinger identified staffing as a priority. The district has one full-time and five part-time food service workers. Because all the meals are cooked from scratch, there is a serious need for more hands in the kitchen, said Ms. Levinger, who transferred her first grader to Bolinas-Stinson School this week. The grant budget allocates 36 percent of funds to staffing.
Another 30 percent of the funds will go toward procuring better ingredients for students, prioritizing local and organic foods. Because the grant highlights culturally relevant cuisine, Ms. Recher and Ms. Levinger plan to improve one of the most cherished dishes in the district, the burrito, with organic local beef, California dry beans and local vegetables. They also hope to replace a bagged peanut snack with California sunflower seeds. Ms. Recher and Ms. Levinger said they budgeted a second meal upgrade for the 2023-2024 school year.
The district has two primary kitchens, one at West Marin School that also serves Inverness School, and a second at Tomales High School that also prepares food for Tomales and Bodega Bay Elementary Schools. Twenty percent of the grant funds will be put toward new equipment. This could include a dishwasher, blenders, sustainable plates and cups, and bulk milk dispensers.
Twelve percent of funds will be dedicated to educating students about the importance of local and organic food with in-class programs, seasonal field trips to local farms and mills, and expanded use of school gardens. The last 2 percent of funds will go toward menu consulting. Guillaume Pfahl, who directs food services at Sausalito Marin City School District, is providing guidance in menu development at Shoreline. Mr. Pfahl works at Conscious Kitchen, a nonprofit geared toward equity and education in school food services.
This is the second year of the Farm to School Incubator Grant Program, which awarded a total of $25 million to 120 schools—a huge increase from the first iteration in 2021, which awarded $8 million. Funds will be available to Shoreline in April and can be spent until March 2025. If another grant is made in 2026, Ms. Levinger said she would apply again.
Though Ms. Recher and Ms. Levinger hope to implement the funding this year, it may take until next school year to see any changes in the menu. In the meantime, they stress the importance of community input in how to use the funds. Anyone with thoughts on the program can email Superintendent Adam Jennings at [email protected].