Surplus Declines Hurt School Lunch

Food-service directors say one of their main problems is a sharp decrease in the surplus foods the government has been donating to schools.

“We’re having to buy more and more,” says Dale Conoscenti, food-service director at Barre Town Elementary School in Barre, Vt., “and schools are going out of business.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture currently provides 20% of the food that schools serve, and that includes certain surplus (bonus) products that can vary yearly. In recent years cheese has been a bonus commodity that schools have relied on heavily.

“Cheese was a huge item for schools--it was used for pizza, which is a big favorite,” explains Maryland’s school-lunch director, Sheila Terry. “But most of the bonus dairy commodities have dried up.”

In Conoscenti’s case, the small amount of mozzarella the government still supplies is insufficient for the regular Friday pizza that his kids love. “It costs us $60 to $80 to buy a block of cheese,” he notes.

Conoscenti, 37, whom the kids call “Chef Dale,” has received national attention for his nutritious, innovative menus.

Typical on his weekly menus are dishes like turkey paella, fettuccine Alfredo, marinated chicken with sugar snap peas and raspberry soup. “We do no frying,” he says, yet he still provides perennial kid favorites such as chicken nuggets (baked, not fried) and cheeseburgers.

Still, he says, food service at the 1,200-student school “is holding on by a string.” He uses money earned from a la carte sales and catered lunches for teachers and administrators to supplement his budget.

In some cases, school districts cut expenses by allowing fast-food corporations such as Pizza Hut to sell to students. Others, including the DeKalb County School System in Decatur, Ga., have resisted so far, says its director of school nutrition, Dorothy Dusenberry.

“We have good board support and we’ve kept out Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Taco Bell and Subway,” Dusenberry says.

The problem with these fast-food companies, she contends, “is that they’re going to cut back on cost and quality to increase profit in their pocket.”