School districts embracing sustainability with food choices
How does a school cafeteria replace a lunch staple as timeless and kid-beloved as chicken nuggets? The challenge tested Mt. Lebanon School District’s food service staff when they ditched meat from the lunch menu on Mondays in the name of sustainability.
“I think there was a bit of a stigma,” Food Service Director Nolen Fetchko said. “When some people heard ‘Meatless Mondays’, they thought the quality of meal was lesser.”
That’s why the district chose not to advertise it when they began serving a weekly vegetarian breakfast-for-lunch. In a small step toward reducing its carbon footprint, the district began offering a once-a-week meatless lunch, a rotation of pancakes, waffles and french toast, with yogurt for protein. Students approved.
Subtle as it might seem, the shift arose from a broader, Earthfriendly playbook that some districts are embracing to improve food quality and set an environmentally conscious example in a world choking on planet-warming greenhouse gases. It’s largely a sign of the times, food service directors say.
“We’re responsible as a school district to prepare our students for the best future possible,” Mr. Fetchko said. “And part of that, aside from education, is giving them an environment and world that has been taken care of responsibly.”
Other local districts have adopted — or are at least exploring — the same philosophy.
Last month, dozens of local food service directors traveled to Chatham University’s bucolic Eden Hall campus in Richland for the first Regional School Food Summit, organized by the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council and Penn State Center Pittsburgh. Sessions included guidance on how to bring locally grown food to schools and ways to finance school food initiatives.
During a presentation on boosting healthy, climate-friendly school food, a member of the environmentalist nonprofit Friends of the Earth walked through examples of school districts in Florida, California and Colorado that have successfully taken on the task.
According to a 2017 case study by the group, Oakland Unified School District in California cut its food purchasing carbon footprint by 14% over two years by substituting plant-based protein food selections for meat, poultry and cheese products. Examples cited in the report include blended mushroom-beef burgers and beefbean chili.
But is that realistic here? Officials in Deer Lakes School District, which serves the largely rural communities of East Deer, Frazer and West Deer, say it is.
Deer Lakes buys food close to home, such as meat and sweet corn from nearby farms, honey from a local beekeeper and bread from Mancini’s Bakery in McKees Rocks, Food Service Director Jacob Douglas said. The district, which spent about $1.23 million on food services last year, even planted an apple orchard next to the elementary school.
“They’re able to say that, ‘This apple is from the orchard I pass every day on the way to and from school,’ “Mr. Douglas said. “They know where the food is coming from rather than just having processed produce with no idea where it came from.”
Although it’s a bit more labor intensive, Deer Lakes makes
many foods from scratch, which gives dishes fresher, more robust flavors, Mr. Douglas said. The roast beef and pulled pork are among the “biggest hits,” he said.
District spokesman Jim Cromie noted that the efforts extend beyond the cafeteria. At each of the district’s three K-8 schools, students raise vegetable plants — typically arugula — in their classrooms and later harvest and eat the yield. It’s part of the S.T.E.M. education, he said.
Although many factors play into the equation, the district’s sustainability efforts are largely cost-neutral, Mr. Cromie said in an email.
“Cost is not what drives this for us, though,” he said. “We want to provide the best quality food for our students while at the same time remaining fiscally responsible to our taxpayers. This solution allows us to solve both issues.”
For Pittsburgh Public Schools, a key priority involves cutting waste. Most schools offer so-called share tables where students may drop off parts of their meals they don’t want and their classmates can pick it up instead, said Curtistine Walker, the district’s food service director.
“It’s any component that they did not want as part of lunch or breakfast, milk or fresh fruit and breakfast or lunch that they did not want or consume,” she said.
The district also has a partnership with the nonprofit 412 Food Rescue, which helps distribute unused food to different groups around the city. Mr. Walker said that they have a composting program in the works that would direct unreusable food to farms and elsewhere.
The school district has donated approximately 15,550 pounds of food, which has gone to more than 50 nonprofits, 412 Food Rescue Senior Program Director Jen England said in an email.
“That’s not counting a big donation today which looks like its about 1,200 pounds,” she said.
The composting program is already in full force at the middle and high schools in Mt. Lebanon, Mr. Fetchko said. Once a week, they ship off food scraps — such as cantaloupe rinds — to compost for use at local farms.
The district sources its milk locally, went styrofoamfree at the high school and sticks to reusable trays and plates, Mr. Fetchko said.
They are all worthwhile efforts, he said, even as some districts “do not have the flexibility to even consider taking on extra costs for sake of sustainability.”
“Some are interested in small changes or big,” Mr. Fetchko said. “Some people are willing to spend more on sustainability, some aren’t. It’s a gradual process.”