District Communications Coordinator George Pinckney told NBC Bay Area that the spaghetti had contained moldy, burnt bell peppers. According to Pinckney, a new oven in the central kitchen — where all elementary school meals are prepared — alongside temperature increases from malfunctioning refrigerator fans caused the problem.

Since then, PAUSD has worked to prevent further meal spoilage. According to Pinckney, the district has been measuring the temperatures of all foods and closely monitoring expiration dates to mitigate future incidents.

“We will definitely continue to improve our protocols and make sure that our kitchens are safe and the food we serve is also safe,” Pinckney said.

The district’s spoiled-food situation, alongside its adjustments to post-pandemic regulations and mandated nutritional guidelines, raises questions about whether its current food programs fully serve its students.

Free Meals

To ease families’ burdens after the COVID-19 lockdown, on July 9, 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom included the Universal Meals Program as part of Assembly Bill 130. The program requires all public schools to provide students with two free meals each school day, without consideration of their financial background or eligibility for federally funded free or reduced-price meals. According to PAUSD Student Nutrition Director Alva Spence, the district currently offers free breakfast and lunch to students.

The bill also authorizes the California Department of Education to reimburse schools for the cost of the meals. PAUSD logs expenses for monthly reimbursements from the federal government, and the state government covers remaining costs.

Currently, the contract between PAUSD and Sodexo USA, a consulting and food-services company, has PAUSD paying $1.37 and $1.89 for breakfast and lunch supplies per meal, respectively. PAUSD has contracted with Sodexo for over a decade to help maintain adherence to local and federal food laws and ensure that students receive the correct portion sizes and nutritional components, per the California Department of Education’s guidelines.

Sodexo provides training for PAUSD’s 39 Student Nutrition Services employees, who learn knife-handling skills, from-scratch cooking and procedures for providing new vegetarian options. All meals are reheated or cooked in PAUSD facilities, according to Gunn Kitchen Lead Melanie Gomez.

Dietary Concerns

The PAUSD food program has followed the Biden Administration’s guidelines on added sodium and sugar levels in meals. Still, many parents and students remain displeased with the current quality, quantity and portion sizes of school-provided meals.

Sophomore Jules Nagayama noticed a decline in quality since the switch from paid brunch and lunch at the middle schools to free meals at Gunn.

“I liked lunch a lot better when it was before COVID, and we still had to pay,” Nagayama said. “The quality and portions were way better — you could even get two lunches if you wanted to. Now, I don’t feel like the food is enough for me.”

However, according to Assistant Principal of Wellness Courtney Carlomagno, PAUSD is restricted by the state program’s guidelines for caloric values per meal: School breakfast must remain within 450 to 600 calories and lunches between 750 and 800 calories.

The number of meal choices has also dropped post-COVID. According to Carlomagno, there are currently only three lunch options per day, down from four or five before the pandemic.

“We were able to charge for lunches (pre-pandemic), which meant we had a surplus of money, and that meant we were able to put that back into the food we were serving,” she said. “We were able to offer more options.”

Despite the decrease in overall entree options, Spence stated that the number of vegetarian options has remained constant since pre-pandemic times. Under the current program, students with dietary restrictions can struggle to find suitable lunch options. Sophomore Hannah Baum, an athlete and vegan, has always chosen to not eat school lunch, both pre- and post-pandemic times, and instead chooses to bring her own lunch every day.

“I don’t think they give enough food, and the food they do give isn’t necessarily healthy and also vegan,” Baum said. “(I’ve seen) vegetarian options, but they’re all like cheese and crackers, so I don’t think that’ll give me enough food.”

Creating Solutions

In response to these concerns, PAUSD has enabled students with dietary needs to submit requests on the Gunn website for special meals, according to Carlomagno.

“Not all of them are approved, but it’s definitely a way to put it in and have the district review it,” she said.

PAUSD is also working with Sodexo to add more food options in the 2024 spring semester, including chana masala over rice, vegetarian chili with cornbread, smoothies, parfaits with granola, General Tso’s chicken and tofu, teriyaki burgers, and quinoa salads.

In addition to expanded options, Spence anticipates fresher meals in the coming months: The district has bought three more trucks to minimize delivery times, and construction on the new kitchen facilities in the A- and B-buildings is expected to be completed in fall 2024, resulting in warmer, fresher meals.

To provide more locally grown food, PAUSD is partnering with Ag Link, an organization that helps PAUSD access organic produce from farms in Merced, Fresno, Salinas, Stanislaus, Butte, Yuma and Kern.

Students have also taken initiative to address the inconveniences of the government-implemented program. According to Principal Wendy Stratton, a student helped facilitate the addition of vending machines to campus. Located near the K-building, Main Office and Bow Gym, these vending machines provide additional options to students seeking food on campus, such as chips and beverages. Their items have undergone a review process — certain items, such as soda and candy, cannot be served.

Community members can provide feedback on the Gunn food program at the monthly menu advisory meetings, usually held on Thursdays from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. via Google Meet.

Parent Kanda Ishihara noted the connection between subpar lunches and the overall culture of food waste on campus.

“They should do a better job of making (lunch) healthier and tastier, because otherwise the kids don’t even eat it — they throw it away and it’s a big waste of money,” Ishihara said. “It’s convenient, it’s a great resource, but it’s just such a waste.”

In 2014, the U.S. Green Building Council’s Center for Green Schools published a sustainability framework, which was designed to emphasize sustainability and eco-friendly practices within the American school system. The framework was subsequently adopted by PAUSD. Importantly, this framework defines communication as a crucial step in maintaining sustainable practices, equal in importance to the initiatives themselves. “Everyone in a school, especially leaders, communicates the vision through their actions; they walk the talk by modeling the behaviors they desire to see,” the framework reads. “When actions accurately reflect the vision, change efforts are more successful.”

According to a survey conducted by The Oracle with 91 responses, 78% of Gunn students believe that the district has not done enough to ensure that their campuses and administrative practices are eco-friendly. It is likely because of this lack of communication that such a large percentage of students believe the district has not done enough: They are not aware of all the efforts to create eco-friendly practices made on the district’s part.

At Gunn, efforts made to foster sustainable practices in food services are limited by the state of its facilities, which are currently under construction. According to Food Services Director Alva Spence, all Gunn food service activities currently occur in multi-use classrooms where on-site meal preparation is impossible, forcing the district to resort to pre-packaged plastic alternatives. These practices overshadow the efforts made in promoting eco-friendly food services district-wide, and lead students to believe that the district does not care about sustainable practices. In reality, the district has pushed for the use of reusable flatware and other sustainable practices at other school levels. For example, at Addison Elementary School, milk dispensers and stainless steel cups, pre-portioned produce in stainless steel containers and reusable flatware have become the norm, replacing single-use alternatives.

The district has also placed emphasis on other domains outside of food services. According to Chair of the Sustainable Schools Committee Rachel Gibson, PAUSD has recently increased the use of sustainable practices in construction, purchased a fleet of electric buses and coordinated waste sorting between sites. Still, the district has rarely shared evidence of these improvements to community members and students. Communication on the subject is crucial, as it makes the community aware that the district does in fact care about sustainability and, more importantly, incentivizes community members to contribute to initiatives themselves.

This communication issue is not only limited to food services. The district’s main form of communication on sustainability consists of an untimely, vague section of their website that provides limited insight into initiatives taken. It details certain overarching goals but fails to provide any explanation in regard to their execution and current status. Take, for example, a sentence detailing the district’s goal of achieving net zero waste emissions: “Beginning in the 2015-16 school year, PAUSD and City of Palo Alto entered an innovative collaboration to promote the concept of zero waste across PAUSD’s school campuses.” The district provides no further information and current updates on the subject besides this statement.

By neglecting to communicate its progress and goals, the district forgoes community support and confidence in its initiatives, decreasing their effectiveness. As an organization that prides itself on fostering a community of collaboration, the district should be held accountable when not communicating with its partners. The framework it adopted promises that it will be “making efficiency goals and annual reduction targets public” and “publicizing goals and results.” The framework cannot be effective until the district makes good on these promises.

Still, district initiatives can only be effective if the majority of students stand by them, which is not always the case. For example, pre-pandemic food services experimented with the use of reusable trays at middle and high schools to cut down on single-use waste. However, the trial was short-lived, as students would destroy the reusable items. According to the same survey conducted by The Oracle with 91 responses, 73.6% of Gunn students believe that the student body has not done enough to ensure that their surroundings are eco-friendly. Student attitudes and perspectives on sustainability are crucial components in meeting eco-friendly goals throughout the district. It is undeniable the number of initiative student leaders—including the Student Executive Council, the Sustainable Fashion Club and the Green team—have taken towards making school-wide improvements. No matter the efforts from student-run organizations, though, large-scale change cannot be achieved without help from the majority of students.

Often, making sustainable decisions in schools results in a trade-off that requires students to be flexible and open to new possibilities. Using reusable flatware and other items introduced in food services, for example, will soon require students at Fletcher Middle School to eat in one location as opposed to anywhere on campus. With construction for new food service facilities at Gunn underway, the possibilities for changes in food service practices are more than likely. Students must be open to the possibility of change if they want to see more sustainable practices on campus. Ultimately, sustainability requires the district and students to work collaboratively and hold each other, as well as themselves, responsible for meeting standards. The district must make achievable goals and communicate progress with community members that can hold them accountable. The district must also encourage student participation in policymaking. At the same time, students must uplift themselves to have proactive attitudes toward waste management and be flexible with eco-friendly policies.