State Sends Students Back to the Sack--Lunch, That Is

Camarillo students, upset that the state told parents and youth groups to stop serving hot meals this school year, are back to eating cold sack lunches.

Their parents are pretty upset about it too. The groups had sold pizza, nachos, hot dogs and hamburgers up to four times a week so that students would not go without lunch.

The students cannot buy hot lunches from the schools because, unlike other schools countywide, the 13 campuses in the district have no cafeterias.

“I think they should have a hot lunch, I really do,” said Winnie Kimbrell, past president of the PTA Council for the Pleasant Valley Elementary School District. “If they don’t have anything (they like to eat), they go around and scrounge for somebody else’s fruit.”

Some youngsters often come to school without eating breakfast, don’t want to eat the cold school lunches, or didn’t bring one from home and go hungry, she added.

The practice of selling hot food stopped after a state Department of Education administrator threatened to cut off $100,000 in federal funds that help offset the cost of free or reduced-price lunches for about 350 low-income students.

The state official said the school’s lunch program, which is supposed to be self-supporting, would lose money if students bought the pizza and hot dogs instead of the reduced- and full-priced school meals. The state was also concerned that the sale of food prepared off school grounds lacked regulation for nutrition and cleanliness.

Because the district needed the funding and no waiver process exists, Jan Maez, director of budget and fiscal services, said the district “really had no choice” but to comply with the state order.

As long as the weather is good, Los Altos Intermediate School students share their outdoor lunch area with the sea gulls. When it rains or gets windy, they eat in their classrooms.

They eat cold sack lunches brought from home or shipped in from the Ventura Unified School District. Entrees in the school lunches include bean and cheese burritos and “grilled” chicken patty sandwiches, which students say sometimes come filled with ice nuggets.

At Los Altos, only about 32 of the school’s 593 students take advantage of the federally subsidized lunch program, but many say they throw some or most of their ingredients away.

“I don’t eat it,” Carlos, 12, said of the lunch the district buys him every day. “I just give it to someone who wants it. My friends give me stuff (to eat).”

Districtwide, the pattern is similar. Of the district’s 6,700 students, about 700 consume the school lunches each day, up from 550 to 600 last year, officials said. About half of the total are bought at the full price of $1.50 each, primarily in the elementary schools.

Raul, 12, only eats the parts of his free lunch that he can stomach.

“Because the pizza and the chicken is all cold,” he said. “It would be better if it was hot.”

PTA Council President Martha Goodsell and school administrators say they would like all children to have hot lunches, but not at the expense of those low-income students such as Carlos and Raul.

“We are concerned that those kids who qualify do get their needs met,” Goodsell said. “We would not dare to do anything to harm (those) kids.”

Camarillo’s lack of cafeterias is not unique among schools statewide, but the unavailability of hot lunches is rare because most schools have some kitchens in their districts, said Maria Balakshin, director of the child nutrition and food distribution division of the state Department of Education.

Associate Supt. Howard Hamilton said it might be worthwhile to ask the state to make an exception for the district, given that it has no cafeterias, and allow the parents to serve hot meals again.

Balakshin said she would try to get Pleasant Valley and Ventura Unified officials together to talk about improving the quality of the lunches for Camarillo schools.

“You can do a lot with bag lunches,” she said.

Parents and administrators said the hot food sales not only pleased students, they also helped raise money for student clubs and school improvements.

“We had lines all over the place to get the hot entree,” Goodsell said.

As a result of eliminating those sales, Los Altos Principal Harry (Jim) Williams said, some student clubs have folded, school spirit has flagged, and Los Altos gains less in the way of capital improvements, formerly funded by parent-raised money.

As Goodsell put it, what “has been truly sacrificed are the good fuzzies, the good feelings.”

“It’s hurting us,” Williams said. “It’s nice for the kids to have hot lunches, but it’s (also) hurting the groups.” He pointed to a concrete stage in the middle of the grassy field where students eat, saying those groups raised funds to build it.

The state and federal bureaucracies, he added, don’t know what they are taking away from the schools.

However, Maez said parents in other districts have found other successful means of fund-raising.

Parents have gotten used to the idea that the district’s schools were built without cafeterias, but neither they nor the students are happy about it.

Charles Dougherty, 13, who has attended schools in other states, such as Texas, said Los Altos is the only school that he has been to that has no cafeteria.

“It just got done raining, and we have to sit down in the mud,” he said, pointing to the grassy field.

“That stinks,” said Faith Davis, 13. “Like right now, my hair is blowing all around. And when it rains, we have to eat in the classrooms. . . . If you slam down your drink, (the teacher) goes, ‘Shhhh.’ ”