Written by Beth Mlady, Special to cleveland.com
Berea City School District students have a variety of healthful food choices available for breakfast and lunch -- and they definitely take advantage of them.
That was one of several messages Nutrition Services Supervisor Briana Cates shared with the Berea Board of Education April 17 during her annual department operations summary.
As of March 31, Nutrition Services has served more than 331,000 meals during the school year. A la carte sales total $625,000.
“My staff has been so great this year,” Cates said. “The goals I set last year for the department, and that we achieved, included increasing a la carte sales districtwide, and we have been doing great.
“I implemented a manager’s training (program), and seven of our current Nutrition Services employees attended this. They completed about 25 hours of onsite training each week. “The cool thing was that each employee traveled to a different school, so they were at the different levels (elementary, middle, high school) and able to get that experience. It gives the employee eligibility to become an assistant manager in the future as the jobs become available.”
Cates said her goals for the 2023-24 school year include introducing some coffee recipes at the high school, as well as increasing customer participation and a la carte sales. She would also like to perhaps include from-scratch food options on the menu.
“Our district overall has a 31.7 percent (eligibility and participation in) free and reduced (price) lunch,” she said, sharing data indicating that Brook Park Elementary School’s participation was the highest at 44 percent, followed by the middle school (33 percent), Grindstone Elementary (29 percent), the high school (28 percent) and Big Creek Elementary (24 percent).
She also noted that she attended the School Nutrition Association’s 2023 Legislative Action Conference in Washington D.C., where she and other school nutrition professionals advocated for universal free meals, permanent reimbursement rate increases for the National School Breakfast and Lunch Program and reducing the regulatory and administrative burden placed on school districts.
Board member Rick Mack later asked if Cates has thought about composting the district’s food waste.“I would absolutely love to do that,” she replied. “I think it’s a great idea.”