Elementary School Lunch Program Gets off to a Rocky Start

by Joan R. Simon

(December 15, 2006) After generations of brown bag lunches, with pizza or “Lunch with Lou” sprinkled in, an affordable daily lunch program has arrived at Chatworth, Central and Murray Avenue schools. Nearly 400 students are participating in the program, which offers a choice of a hot or cold lunch for $2 each day, including a vegetable (such as carrot sticks), a fruit and either regular or chocolate milk. Parents are required to order lunches for an entire month in advance, but can chose as many or as few days as they want.

Central students munch on lunch bought at school or brought from home.

Mamaroneck Avenue School has had a similar lunch program for three years, but students there do not have to select their lunches in advance. All of the elementary lunches are prepared at the Hommocks by Whitsons Culinary Group, which has also been providing meals for the middle school and high school since the fall of 2005.

The brown bag lunches have received mixed reviews. Changes are in the works to make improvements.

It has been a rocky beginning, however, for the three elementary schools that started their lunch programs this fall. “It’s a work in progress,” commented Eileen Puleo, who is the Central School liaison for the program. In the beginning, “it was like they were in front of a firing squad,” she said. “But Whitsons really listened to the criticism and they worked really hard to correct what was wrong.” Whitsons has responded to many of the parent complaints on the Mamaroneck Schools website.

Kitchen-less Schools Create Logistic Problems

Because there are no kitchens at the elementary schools, the lunches are pre-cooked and pre-packaged at the Hommocks before being delivered to the three elementary schools. Initially, Whitsons’ system for recording the lunch orders was flawed: some students were getting the wrong lunch – or in some cases, no lunch at all. There were complaints about the hot food arriving cold and the cold food being unappetizing. Whitsons is addressing these issues, according to Dr. Chrstine Grucci, Assistant Superintendent for Operations, by adding staff to reduce mistakes and improve the delivery system and by providing extra lunches in case of errors. “We are the only client of Whitsons that doesn’t have kitchens” in the elementary schools, Dr. Grucci said, explaining why there have been so many start-up issues.

At Mamaroneck Avenue School, where there is a larger lunchroom, Whitsons has been able to assemble the lunches on site and therefore does not require pre-ordering. Dr. Grucci is hoping that a similar program can be worked out at Central School, which also has more space in its lunchroom.

Food Quality

Another complaint among parents has been the lack of healthy choices. Dr. Grucci explained that the check-off order form did not adequately describe the offerings. In fact, the bread is whole grain, there are no fried foods (e.g., mozzarella sticks are baked), the fruit is either fresh or canned in juice, not syrup, and the milk is lowfat (1%). As for more sophisticated healthy fare, such as soy milk, Dr. Grucci commented: “Soy is not part of a $2 lunch program.”

Free and Reduced-Cost Lunches

Many students are eligible for the free and reduced-cost (25¢) lunch program offered by the federal government, which Dr. Grucci said was “an important reason to have a school lunch program." Whitsons is one of only three food services in the area that has been approved by the New York State Education Department, a necessary pre-requisite for federal reimbursement. Currently there are 250 students at the four elementary schools who receive free or reduced-cost lunches.

Not all parents have had problems with the lunch program. “My one picky daughter loves it and I love the price,” commented Sheryl McSherry, a Chatsworth parent, although her daughter keeps getting chocolate milk instead of the regular milk that she wants. Referring to the federal free-lunch program, she said, “I support it for that reason alone," adding, “It keeps it equitable.” Ms. Puleo agreed,“All the children get to eat and that’s what’s important.”

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