is, just telling you -- and there are a lot of people behind me. and i couldn't not make lunch for my kid because i knew my kid wouldn't eat anything that day. so i'm just asking to --ou know, there are things that seem unusual. i mean, this was a process that was done in the fall. we're in the middle of june, and it's coming here, so it's been delayed for quite sometime. i guess you're looking at a shorter contract which may be good and creates some incentive, but let's be creative. let's look at the schools that are struggling the most in terms of providing a nutritional foundation for our kids and try something different. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good evening. my name is miss shackson. every day we nourish our opportunities with quality lives that enables them to

thrive inside and outside of the classroom, and we innovate to strengthen san francisco unified school district eco system. [inaudible] >> this is what is served at my kid's school. he's a seven-year-old, first grader. is this what they serve you? >> yes. >> how does this taste? [inaudible] >>. >> so he just said that this food is not tasty. it clearly is not healthy. this is what it looks like, and these kids are given these fruits and vegetables, brown and rotten, rotten, spoiled milk on a daily basis. my kids rides the bus to his

school to and from 45 minutes every day. my husband or i am waiting for my kid with food. after school, he's tired. he has no energy because he hasn't eaten, and this has gone on for the majority of the year. you guys need to make should changes and make -- some changes and make them now because if this goes onny longer, it's not fair. it's not right, and it's not fair, and our kids are suffering, period. >> what school did you say your son goes to? >> rooftop, rooftop, one of the best schools in san francisco, but this is what they're served, okay? [applause] >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. my name is shabeka thomas. i'm also an alumni of san francisco unified school district. that was my nephew, but i have a lot of cousins involved in the san francisco unified school district.

i graduated. my point is the lunch for the kids is horrible. they don't eat it. the smell of it, that's -- that's your sense, you smell first before you even touch it, so if the smell is bad, what makes you think the kid going to eat it? and i think just take that into consideration when you're deciding healthy because there's healthy food that smell good, there is he healthy food that look good. when you're deciding on putting food into the schools for the kids, please, you smell it, you try it, and then serve it to our babies. [applause] >> yes, my name is vanessa jackson, and my problem is i work for the sheriff's department. did you look at that food? did you guys see the picture of that food? i want you guys to see this.

>> yeah, turn it around. >> here's what it looks like. he don't e want to look at it. he done pass -- he don't even wa to look at it. he done pass -- look. that's not even recyclable food. i mean, seriously. i work -- i work at prisons, and that food looks exactly -- my granddaughter brought some carrots home that i think they maybe made in a chemist's lab. they couldn't burn it. you don't want them coming with cheetos and salami and cheese. the man just passed it right on down. he don't even want to look at

it. that's ridiculous for kids. when i was growing up, for .50, we got the butter cookies, the p popsicles, the tat tots. you making these kids eat stuff, i don't know what you talking about, the healthy foods, that's not healthy. i don't know. where's your pictures at. i'm from the hood. i know the difference between right and wrong, you didn't even come with no food. you didn't come with nothing for nobody to see nothing, smell nothing, taste nothing. you playing games with these people's lives. you know what i'm sag? this is just ridiculous. just because they say it's in the food before they get there. that makes no sense to me.

you can look at me, but you know you trying to play games. these people ain't playing with you. we've been here since 6:00 until 10:00 for this, 6:00 until 10:00, and trying to get bribed with pizza and ice water, no thank you. no thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. my name is mavis williams, and first of all, if that's the food that's coming from revolution, i say no to revolution. now, when i was going to school, we had lunches -- i mean, we couldn't wait until lunchtime. but now, my grand kids and my friend's grandchildren, none of those kids eat that food. it's disgusting. when you open it up, theread is stale, the meat is discolored, the fruit is brown, the milk is spoiled or

outdated. what are those kids supposed to do? they can't function without a healthy meals. we send them to school with breakfast, but by lunchtime, that food is burned off, and they need food so their brain can function properly so they can get through their day and get their education the way it's meant to be. now with -- with the food that they're serving, i wouldn't even feed that to my dog. i've seen it, i've smelled it, but i darn sure wasn't going to taste it. you need to -- to -- if that's the food that they're serving, then, you don't need to renew them, you need to get someone else to take care of this food. feed them something good, hot, healthy, and proper. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. my name is kimberly cane. i'm from the bayview. i would like to say, this food that you're feeding my grand baby, you know, i hear early in

the morning, mom, i don't want to eat that. that food nasty. the milk, that's hot. i said really? it's not that bad. i went up to the schl one day with my daughter and looked at that food. i said that is ridiculous. i he had is no-- said if you g would want t get some of that school lunch and try it and see if them kids is lying. it's bad. it don't make no sense. you want to know why the kids was cutting up in school? they ain't got nothing to eat, they ain't got no nutrition. >> hi. my name is vanessa white, and the food is ridiculous. they need to go back to the old fashioned way when i was going up. the food was freshly cooked. the food was fresh, and it was

good, the whole works. and it was fresh food every day. they'd fix it from the time we -- from the time 12:00 get e lunchtime was ready. [inaudible] >> yep, on the premises. and they have a line, and it was good. [applause] >> hello. my name is stephanie leyvas. i worked this past year with healthy choices america, and i worked within the wellness center, and i can tell you that i would literally bring stuff from my own house to feed the students. a lot of the students would come in in the morning to have breakfast, they would come in after lunch to continue to ask for snacks because they wouldn't eat the school food because it was really disgusting. i'm going to share this with

you. and i -- i understand that you are here representing your company, but i'd like to show you what it really looks l and i do see that you state here that you guys -- that san francisco staff does taste the food, but i highly doubt it. because it -- that if you notice the pictures, i notice you're trying to write down notes, but if you notice the pictures, there's two colors on that meat. it's gray and pink, so i just want to ask, like, if you were at a restaurant, would you really, like, pay for that, first of all? second of all, would you even eat it? i'm sure that anyone would return that food right away, as soon as you see it. [inaudible] >> oh, yeah, they have one. so basically, our -- we're wasting -- or spending money, the city's tax dollars, on this food that the kids are not

eating, and we're just wasting a lot of the food is thrown out, which is really sad. there's so many students and families not only within the united states, but outside of the united states that are hungry, and they need -- they want -- they need the food, and unfortunately, we're just wasting money andme on the food. thank you. >> thank you. i'm sorry. could you tell me your name again, please. >> stephanie leyvas. >> and just to be clear, miss o'keefe, is our staff, she's not revolution's staff. she's our staff. >> ken archer. when i heard about this review of this contract, it was inconceivable to me that we would move forward -- >> i'm sorry. if we could be respectful of the current speaker, thank you. >> it was inconceivable to me that we would move forward with

the same vendor. i mean, can -- what does this say to this vendor? can we really expect that revolution is going to improve? what we're essentially telling revolution is what they've provided for the last five years is acceptable going forward, and we need an admission from the board and from the staff that this is not acceptable. it's amazing that they were even allowed to bid on this contract. what we are telling students on free and reduced-price lunch and sf unified is they do not matter. when they come into school, at my school the lunchtime program is -- it's an embarrassing spectacle for my city, because the only students who have this food are the students who are poor, who are on free and reduced-price lunch. and so one of the things that

i've been sort of senseitized too is when we have poor students who are forced to self-identify as things that happen through the school address being poor. and this is one of those times. and it's really hard not to suspect that that is actually one of the things that is iving this dec isnhat we don't want kids who are not on free and reduced price lunch to opt into having this food because that would increase the number of meals that are served which would increase our costs, and it seems like keeping those costs low is the primary driver. it is embarrassing, and it is -- to talk about this as being a dignified meal experience? i mean, if you just come to rooftop's lunch, and you -- it is not dignified at all. it's insulting to these poor kids. any way, that's all i have to say. >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi.

my name is gail hart, and i used to work for the unified school district as a lunch room worker in 2000 to 2011. and the kids are -- if they want an apple, but they are required to get the whole lunch, and they will go and just put tunch right in the garbage, just straight in the garbage and literally, i used to drag garbage bags of food. so this is a lot of money wasted, where you can try to partner up with the culinary school or something and make the meals on-site like it used to be, because it is a lot of money wasted. i mean, these kids are active because of hunger. you know, they not focusing because of hunger, and the majority of the low-income communities have the worst part of the fruit and vegetables.

so it -- if they are doing the testing, you need to have the real parents and the real kids ere the food are being wasted in the majority areas and really try to just focus on getting this food right and really fresh on-site. [applause] >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> my name is mark. this is montel. >> my name's montel. >> my name is gary. >> and i go to the rooftop school. >> i go to booker t. washington. >> i go to mission wharf

academy. >> and booker t. washington. >> i feel that my school is -- it is nasty, and no one likes it at our school. people doesn't go up there, and they get home lunch if -- the day they don't like the food there. the food tastes like dog -- dog food, and i think it's disgusting, and all my fries that never goes up there, because they don't want the food. >> at my school, the food is -- tastes fake, and it doesn't taste real, and the first time i ever tried the food, i really threw up.

it tastes like yucky food. >> garbage. >> okay. do you have something to say, montel? >> i go to my after school, and the food that they give us is, like, horrible, and, like, it makes my stomach hurt. and then, like, when -- sometimes, when i'm just sitting with my friends, we just talk about how disgusting it is and that we don't like it. [applause] >> so my name is lakesha howard, and i am a parent to montel. i attends booker t. washington community service center. i also worked for booker t. washington for 18 years, so i am very familiar with the revolution food. they complain about it all the time. they may take the apple, they

may take the carrots, but they get the same thing every week. i do see they're trying to introduce two new foods every month. i just want to know where is the kids input into the meals that they're preparing for the kids and who's tasting the meals because they turn it down. i want to know who's doing the data or the research in regards to who's throwing away the food, so how do you know if they're really eating the food. they're calculating them through the line, they're dropping it in the box, and it's counted fore. it's counted because they're dropping it into a box, but it's not saying who actually ate the food. you're not supposed to take it off-site, but you're not supposed to. when they're saying oh, i'm taking it home, that's because they don't have feed or they're trying to take it home because they want a snack or maybe the apple and the carrots, whatever the case may be, but they can't even take it home because it's

not good. so my thing is if we can get healthier alternatives and have the kids' input, even in child development, have you to listen to it to build relationships and things like that, you have to have the kids input. smoothies, culanary school, something with the kids input so they can eat it and not throw it away. thank you. >> hi. my name is shirai, and i go to rooftop, and i've been there from k through 8. and i think revolution food is a waste of time. like, nobody eats it at our school, and everyone just -- everyone just goes through the line and never eats, and then, it's, like, a waste of food because everyone just throws it away. and lots of kids just end up not eating, going out -- going

throughout the day with no food because it's so nasty. and they refuse to eat the processed food. and i -- for me, if i don't eat all day, i can't concentrate -- concentrate right in school, so i feel like we need a new lunch system or something that can help us eat better. [applause] >> hi. my name is andrea phillips, and i attended rooftop school, but now, i attend f.s.a., and the difference that i saw between these two schools is that rooftop, it was -- the school was disgusting, and i didn't like the food, but at the school i am at right now, the food is cooked on-site, and it was very good, and you have an option to have a hot meal or you have an option to choose a sandwich or a drink or fruit. and i am here to standup for

children who don't eat revolution food because it looks nasty, smells nasty, and every time i smell or look at it, i want to throw up. something has to change. children can't leave on an empty stomach. thank you. [applause] >> hello, commissioners. my name is geraldine anderson. i stand with all parents concerned about the district's lunch program. in our schools and at home, we teach and learn about healthy eating habits, yet the district's menudoesn't align with food leaving children hungry. i think the district should rethink the menu, create a parent survey to be redistributed before school starts in the fall, confirming food preferences and/or ideas for breakfast and lunch and/or a big breakfast day once a month or once a week to encourage early bird attendance, less tardiness, and

more parent and community engagement in these events, invest in a dietitian, these ideas should be thoughtfully considered and implemented for the start of the 2018 school year. [applause] >> hi. my name is jessica fontenaeu, and my children attend rooftop. and i am here because several months ago my son came home and -- well, all of my kids, they're always complaining about the food line. so like the average parent, you give them tough love, and say eat it any way. you have no other can choice because i can't afford to go out and buy lunch for you every day. so when my son did, he said mom, i have something for you. he goes into his backpack, and he pulls this out, and he said you eat it.

and i said, i ain't eating that. so what i'm saying is this: i really feel like it's connected to the achievement gap, because a hungry child is not receive the education. they're hungry, they're irritated, they're frustrated. how can a child learn feeling hungry? kids aren't eating food at school because it doesn't taste good. scratch cooking with variety and diverse taste profiles is really key, not from frozen or secondhand. kids and their tastes should be the number one driver, so how about having kids highly involved in the selection process. she mentioned 300? how many schools do we have in the district? school food should really be driven by the community, not

the staff. please only extend this contract to revolution for a year, and begin a more, much more transparent process next year. revolution hasn't earned the right to continue to serve the city's kids, given its poor performance. let's start over with more of an open mind and consider new opportunities to serve better food to our children. they are spending and wasting city dollars, tax dollars on food that children are not eating, food that is being wasted. this money can be used for reus resources for schools that suffer from the achievement gap. revolution is getting paid billions and billions of dollars for unhealthy food that is being thrown away. children cannot perform in class because they're hungry, and there are no other options.

their families are low-income and poor. i have witnessed a whole program with their head down and refusing to eat the food as it gets thrown in the garbage. thank you. [applause] >> all right. thank you. all right. thank you, commissioners. commissioner sanchez and commissioner haney. >> thank you, miss o'keefe, do you have any response to the public comments? >> thank you, commissioner sanchez. i appreciate the opportunity. i'd like to thank all the families for coming out this evening to share their perspective. we serve over 30,000 meals a day, and over 20,000 students a

day are eating our school meals, and there are many different perspectives about that, and students from all different socioeconomic levels are eating our foods. i appreciate the perspective from rooftop today. there was a strong showing, and i will commit to following up with what's happening at rooftop -- >> okay. i'm sorry. so we're not gng to have this kind of an engagement, so please allow her to answer or 1307bd respond to the comments. >> i agree with what i heard. i agree. school meals are incredible important to our students health and well-being and their academic out comes, and we're completely committed to that. and the vision and the goals and the mission that we're facing in the presentation, that's our northstar. that's what we're striving for. it's a massive undertaking to transform school meals while providing school meals, and we're completely committed to

that. so the importance of it, i couldn't agree here, and they are the values that are driving our work. there are -- there were questions about -- there were questions about so many things. i would love to be able to respond to all of them, but i can't. but i appreciate hearing their perspectives. i don't disagree with them at all that school meals are incredibly important, and we need to do more to make the meals more appealing to our schools. just acknowledge we heard from one students tonight and have a group of parents, and that there are over 20,000 students who are eating our school meals every day and have a variety of different experiences with those meals. >> one of the comments tonight that i heard is that the food's inedible and nasty. when the contract was signed for revolution foods around

seven years ago in the middle of the year, it was night and day. prior to revolution foods, the students were throwing away all their food every day, and it was a big complaint throughout the district, and that was one of the reasons why the district moved to revolution food. i always tell the story about the first day of school after winter break when i was monitoring fourth and fifth grade lunch, and one of the fifth graders asked me why the cafeteria was so quiet. and i said why, and he said because we're eating. but over time, after that, the quality of the food was diminishing. i personally didn't have the experience about warm milk or bad fruit or vegetables. that was consistently good all the way up until i left last year, but the quality of the main meal had diminished, and kids were throwing out their food. that's the story of cleveland, and that's the story of other schools that i heard from other principals, as well. i think we need to address the

quality of the food, we need to know that our kids are being nourished, and if not, we need to address it on a systemic basis. but it's a big issue, and i think we need to look at whether revolution food can meet the needs of our district. >> commissioner haney, vice president cooke, and then, commissioner walton. >> thank you, to everybody who came out tonight. i have a couple comments and questions. the first is when did we start contracting with revolution foods? >> it was in january of 2013, the board passed the resolution in 2012, december of 2012. >> so one concern, and i expressed this in the budget committee, as well, we had an

increase of 10% in the number of meals served annually, that's mostly in breakfast, where we've expanded our breakfast in the classroom program. we've seen a pretty devastating drop in the number of lunches that are being consumed. and i think that when we brought on revolution foods, the understanding -- 'cause we actually going to pay more than we were prior at the time was that we were going to makeup for that in part by having more students eat lunch, and it actually looks like we have about a 350,000 meals drop in the number of lunches that are being consumed. so my concern is i realize that, you know, they're doing taste tests and this's all these different ways it sounds like they're saying that they're doing a good job, but if we look at the actual out comes and the number of students that are choosing to eat lunch, we're seeing a

pretty consistent drop. if we look at how they performed, there's a concern there. i want to know your thoughts on that. the other concern is i have is, you know, i think most commissioners will echo when we go out and visit schools, we hear concerns about the students that they don't like the food, that it's not enough, that there's certain ones that they like. it doesn't always add up with what we're hearing or seeing about how students informed revolution foods is saying that they are. so i wonder what kind of objective data do they show us? do we get to analyze these taste tests. but it sounds like they're self-informed. how do we know, if they're

policing themselves, what sort of oversight and accountability that we do have if they're self-informed and students do actually like the food. i would like to know what role we're playing and what we get to see what they do. of course they're going to everything they do as having great results. maybe we wouldn't have as much of a need to have that type of accountability if we were seeing much greater numbers of participation, but those are concerning to me. the last thing is we clearly want to move towards more scratch cooking, more cooking that's actually taking place in our schools, a central kitchen. so you know, what's a commitment to that within this contract? what sort of commitment do we have to move towards that, and you know, how does it -- another three years with revolution foods help us get there? i realize they're committing to the good food purchasing

policy, which is great, but i think that we have a larger goal, as we talked about a lot, to where we want to be, and is this going to help us get there? [applause] >> thank you, commissioner. yes, we're concerned about the drop in lunch participation, as well. and the overall increase is directly connected with supper, so when we first rolled out this contract, we weren't providing supper at all. so now we're providing three meals a day and we're not sure what kind of connection there is between, you know, the proximity of when kids are getting supper in their after school program and lunch and if there is an impact on it. there is multiple dimensions to this. the question about self-regulating, i think we've got a -- we're doing a study at the moment at 24 different schools, and with a usda grant, and u.c. berkeley is doing the

study for us, and they're measuring plate waste and food and vegetable consumption, and we're going to get a report at the end of july, and so i can share it with the board. but preliminary findings suggest that some of the interventions that we're trying to do that go beyond just the meals that are served are having an impact on that, as well. and the move to scratch cooking, yes, we're absolutely committed on that. so with the 2016 bond, we're actually gearing up to open up -- we've actually just hired a culinary manager. we have our first chef that we've had at the -- in the district has just been -- that classification has been created, and that position has been fulled -- filled, so the team that are doing our pre-k meals, they're all prepared by the staff that do that. so that's all cooking from scratch and procurement from

scratch. we're going to be redesigning the culinary center, and that'll be our first upgraded kitchen with the bond. they currently cook about 1,000 meals a day, and they'll have the capacity to go up to 3,000 meals a day. and the other two sites that we're doing regional kitchens at under the 2016 bond are marina and at denman, and they should be open by the end of '21. so they're on deck for that. and the whole intent with the original bond was that we would be able to explore the possibility of moving to a cooking kitchen, and then in future bonds be able to take it wholesale to go to a greater capacity. we've increased the number of s and s prepared meals. i've mentioned that earlier, so that 15% of the meals. our assumptions for next year are that the number of lunches prepared for middle and high school, 'cause they have kitchens, unlike the elementary schools, will increase. we're also hopeful that with

the investment from the sugary distributor and tax, we will be able to change our procurement practices and do a lot more local purchasing and revamp the s and s prepared meals. so there are multiple strategies that i won't take time with theo rht now, but we're not -- our prepared meals are just one element of all the work that we're doing to try and transform the school meal experience and they're a key piece of it. we' we're the largest meal provider in the city. 30,000 meals a day is massive, at 117 different sites, so it's a massive operation. and it will, you know, like i said, the are multiple strategies to try and improve. the questions about self-regulating, i can spend more time thinking about what that might look like. we have talked about metrics and come up with participation goals that over the next four

years, we want to see 17% increase in participation, and we can setup mechanisms to track and monitor that. i think -- i hope that answers the question >> it does, but if it's a 17% increase in lunch, it won't even get us back to where we were a couple years ago. we've seen a drop. i don't know if you have a better explanation or some sort of explanation other than the food itself as to why we saw such a drop in lunch participation in the last five years since we've had revolution foods? >> i think it's the -- i mean, i can speculate that a lot of it has to do with the fact that we're offering supper. so a tremendous number of children are now eating three meals a day instead of -- so it used to be just breakfast, lunch, and that was it. well, now, in the after school program, they're offered supper. i know children really crave their recess period, and the

lunch lines are long, so i don't know if there's a correlation that they're skipping lunch periods and an hour later -- i don't know. but there's been a massive consumption of meals across the district, but it's shifted from just looking at lunch to a looking at supper, which is served a couple -- you know, in the early afternoon. so overall, the number of meals has increased, and lunch has gone down, but that is a point of concern. >> there would be a simple way to do that. some schools are serving supper and some that are not, so you can look at the numbers that are going down at the schools that are not serving supper. i hope that revolution foods at least attempted to explain why during the time that they've been serving lunch here that

we've seen a pretty big drop in participation. >> another factor is the amount of time children have to eat, so a lot of schools are moving from two lunch periods to one lunch period. if schools have recess before lunch versus after lunch, so there's all these different elements of the school experience that are factors, as well. >> vice president cooke. >> thank you. thank you for the presentation. just personally, i have a tremendous respect for you professionally, but i must admit, when i visit school sites, and i promptly ask students, i'm on the school board, what is it you want to change about the school, the first thing they always say about the lunch. it's like consistently the biggest complaint i hear on the north side of the city, the west side of the city, the south side of the city, the east side of the city.

so it started to give me great concern. i started to talk to other principals about what's going on with the school lunch. i also just want to appreciate all the public comment. i know it's late, and obviously people feel passionate about this topic if they're here. it's pushing 11:00, and i think we need to notice what's going on this evening. i know you work hard on trying to make this a great lunch experience, and a lot of factors go into play, and it's a big operation, and all those things are true. i also know that before revolution foods, we were having food shipped from the midwest, and it was all frozen. there was a lot of issues with it. you know, when i was going to school. we had, like, the beanery program, and it was all chocolate chip cookies, and chow mein, and it was all we

had. i liked it, but it wasn't healthy. and now we have something that we tried to achieve health through, but people aren't participating. so what i'm concerned about are children having a stigma around health because of the quality of the food that they're eating. you know, healthy doesn't equate to good, and i know that's not the case. so i think it'd be a great opportunity just toxplor because this is not really about -- your work is not really about revolution foods, there are other -- a bunch of providers, and i think i would just be interested in seeing who are all the folks that we can consider, and just put revolution foods on notice that, you know, people -- people are upset, and we don't have the commitment to them, we have a commitment to our kids. we want to make sure we're participating in a school lunch. so i think we've achieved great things around the level of service, but we have a lot further to go around quality

and taste. i saw the photos. i saw -- so that's just my overall general comment, and i'm committed to working with you to ensure that that is successful. so, you know, i don't want my comments tonight to be a mark on you necessarily, but i am hearing it from all over the city, so from all the perspectives, there's been a resounding rejection of our school lunches given our socioeconomic statuses from all over the city. [applause] >> commissioner walton and then commissioner merase. >> thank you, and thank you for your presentation, miss o'keefe. i don't have a lot different to say. one, i do want to acknowledge ndre duffy and former supervisor. thank you for being here this evening. i guess just two questions in terms of -- i mean, as i look at slide nine, and we see the

feedback process that revolution foods has -- they conduct with students and parents and principals and school staff. what do we do with the feedback? do they turn it over to us, and are we hearing great things from our principals about food quality? >> so i think there's a collective desire to improve the quality of our food and the taste. i think that's an ongoing process, and we recently had a conversation with a group of principals who asked to talk about the food and wanted to request that we have more diverse -- diverse -- i mean menu items that appeal to a greater diversity of taste, so we're working with revolution foods to respond to that and will continue to work on that piece. so when they do the taste tests, i personally haven't

seen the feedback forms, but i know that they engage with the leadership team and student nutritious services, and they make decisions about which items to put on the menu, and that's a monthly review process. but i'm going to follow up and make sure that kind of moving forward, there's a -- the focus on the kind of metrics and holding accountable for change is something that, you know, i can dig into and we can work on. >> i think it's st been pretty consistent just in terms of the fact that when revolution foods came into the district, i think that we were headed in the right direction, and people were pleased for the most part. and now, it seems like the quality has gone down since they've already been a part of

the district for a while. so i'm wondering if this is a case of, you know, an entity, of course, wining and dining us, and being shiny and pretty, and then changing how they -- how hard they work and how they focus on making sure w ha the right nutritious and that our students continue to receive the quality that they can provide. in the beginning, it was really mostly positive feedback. i have, you know, a child in the district who never eats the lunch, but it could be revolution foods or anybody, and he probably wouldn't, but there is something to be said about how, when they started, they had a different reputation within the district. so i guess my question is, i know this is for a year, and what happens if we say, you know what? this just isn't working for us. what would happen if we made that decision? >> are you asking about tonight? >> correct. >> we would not be able to fulfill all the summer meals

that we've signed up for throughout the city. we're at multiple locations, offering summer meals. so we don't stop in the summer. we go year-round, and we probably would not be able to -- i mean, it would -- it would stop the operation basically because the current contract expires at the end of june, and the process was long and thorough, and there was not a competitor that would have made it possible to provide the services that we're requiring. nobody else came in at the same level with the good food purchasing, which is a school board policy. nobody else came in at the same price point, and there wasn't another vendor that was able to demonstrate that's what they're doing right now. it was a combination of three different organizations, but there's no way to look and see and say where they were working -- it was -- great proposals were put forward by

all but none that would have been able to do the level of operation that we require on a daily basis to provide 30,000 meals and meet all the nutritious requirements that are required and the good food purchasing policy. we have a lot of high standards that the board has set to ensure that we're serving fresh, healthy food. none of our food is ever frozen. it's fresh and served. and i recognize there's different taste profiles, and that sometimes a meal will be more appealing than others, and i also know there's a tremendous amount of work that we need to do and continue, until we're providing meals to all of our students, and the school food program can be transfo transformative, and it's a commitment in what we're trying to do, including changing our cooking infrastructure and our dining experience, so there's

multiple aspects of this that we're working hard to do. but it's not easy to find something who can meet all of our requirements and has the demonstrated capacity to operate by serving 30,000 meals a day. that did not happen when we went out to bid. and when we went out to bid, we didn't just post-it, we reached out to five or six different vendors. they responded. one was nonresponsive because they would not have been able to meet the kind of scale of operation that we're talking about here and immediate or nutritious standards. so i acknowledge there's a lot of room to grow and we need to continue to listen to and be responsive to what we're hearing from the community, and things are certainly not perfect, but i think we're striving to continue to improve. >> and then, with the -- within this mou, this is just for this year. so -- so what's the line of thinking around only improving

this for a year, if we feel that this is a good company to move forward with? >> so the way the -- what we're asking the board is to approve a one-year contract with an opportunity to -- for, i think it's like three or four more extensions. let me be exact. so it's -- the term of the agreement is from july 1, 2018 to june 30, 2019 with possible renewals of four one-year periods by mutual agreement. and the maximum term can't exceed five years, so this time next year, we will be asking the board to renew the contract again. >> thank you. >> thank you. commissioner merase, please. >> thank you. thank you for the presentation, miss o'keefe.

i just want to see if we can do a follow up inform the presentation. spoiled food. i would like to make sure that that's not happening, so if there's a way that staff can verify that we are not serving spoiled food. secondly, on flexibility on whether students can pick and choose a fruit item and not have to take the whole meal, maybe that's something we can work on this year because i think we've heard some feedback. we can solicit additional feedback, but i do think for a kid, choice is really a big consideration. and then, i had a question about food waste. do we do audits of food waste at our lunch rooms, miss o'keefe? are you aware of studies in that area. >> we're studying it at certain schools to see how much there

is, and that's the study that we'll be getting at the end of july. >> great. i think my colleagues and i would be very interested in that result. i'd also like to get a roster of families tonight to keep in our bank for food tasters. we always include students in our food tasting program, and so i think some of the folks who testified tonight would make great candidates for our food tasters. [applause] >> i am a proponent of the good food purchasing policy. that's very, very important to me personally, and i think it's one of the things that recommends revolution foods over competitors, and just so you know and my colleagues know, san francisco general and the sheriff's department are also taking a look at a good food policy to

that. and i'm sorry that josh davidson, who's our newly appointed chef in the district was unable to appoint us. i know he's just getting back from out of town, but i did want to make sure that our vote tonight did not jeopardize what's in place. the final thing i just want to say is my understanding of the contract is that it's one year, renewable after a year, up to five years total, so if, by the end of this year, we find that it's unactoy, we can make a different decision around this, so we're not sort of locked in for a five-year contract. is that correct, miss o'keefe? >> that's correct. that's the maximum amount, but

we're asking for approval for one year. >> thank you very much. >> and that could be -- the request is for -- the term of greent is july 1, 2018 to june 30, 2019 with possible renewal for four one year periods by maximum agreement, but the total shall not exceed yeves. >> yeah. i'm sorry there aren't representatives from revolution foods tonight to respond to these questions. but i hope some of the concerns will be forwarded to them and that we can continue a dialogue. thank you. >> thank you. commissioner sanchez, and then, commissioner haney? >> thank you. so would we -- miss o'keefe, would we then engage in another r.f.q. this fall to prepare for the eventuality of getting

another food service? ho would -- if we decided we didn't want to go forward with them at the end of the year if we didn't h a process in place to contract with another organization. i'm feeling if the food doesn't get dramatically better, and kids don't start eating it, then i'm not going to be prepared infoto vote for their contract, and if we don't have that for next year, what do we do if we don't have another organization lined up? >> yes. one of the things that we're focused on is increasing the number of s and s prepared meals, but if the board -- i think what we would have to do is set a time frame that we would come back with an update and determine whether there's a need for us to go out for another proposal again. >> and then, would it be possible -- and i don't know if any other district has done this, but could we offer contracts -- could we offer the

runner up, as well, contract to do some of our schools, and then have a great cookoff throughout the year so that we can determine which one's better to go forward with for the following years? is there anything legally prohibitive about that? >> right. so we would need to do a whole different process for that, so it's not something we could do tonight, but it's something we could look at. do recognize, though, that it may have the opposite of your intended effect, because we do get some limited economy of scale. if we do take that out of the equation, that may affect price, but it may be an option. >> i think that would be something to look into. i think it would increase the competition in a free marketplace to get the food out there, the most edible food out there to our students.

>> mark, you sound like a capitalist. >> commissioner haney? >> so i had a similar question about whether there was some way to have a small set of schools. the -- the question i was going to ask is how would we communicate some of these concerns to revolution foods and sp a process over the next year where they help to address some of these questions -- or not? the question is there are serious concerns here, and we want to see some changes and greater accountability and actually having students and families and teachers say yes, we do approve of the food, and there's some way to actually have accountability of that for us, because it's, like, for them to tell us that is one thing, but i don't know if our families are actually -- would they tell us that themselves. so that's one thing i'd ask, how we setup a process like

that. are there -- in terms of the scratch cooking versus the frozen, it -- were there differences -- differences with that with revolution foods? do they do frozen or scratch or how did that breakdown in emergency room its of what their difference is in cooking? >> so there might actually be somebody from revolution foods in here in the audience today. there was a team that was here earlier tonight, and i know that they're probably listening. you know, the team that weren't able to be here. so i know that they'll be hearing this conversation directly, and then, i'll also be following up with them, and we will definitely provide them with an opportunity to give the board a response to the different things that have been raised tonight. and i apologize, commissioner. i forget the other question. >> oh, just -- it's a lot. what's a -- just for us to think about what sort of

process, assuming we approve this tonight, to communicate that to them and to make sure that they're addressing these issues. and then, the question was about scratch versus frozen. you might not be able to answer that. >> oh, yes. all of the meals, and that was one of the requirements of the bid process, are fresh, never frozen. so they're all prepared and not frozen, yeah, 100%. >> vice president cooke. >> thank you for all the responses, and some of our questions were answered. so i'm having a hard time bringing myself to vote yes for this. and -- and so my concern is that if i vote no, if the board rejects it, there are kids this summer that won't be able to eat anything.

and so if you can play that scenario through, this gets rejected, and how -- how large does the service level drop if there's no contract in place? >> i strongly recommend that the board approve this contract tonight, and i have heard loud and clear that there are concerns about the food, and i make a commitment to following up directly with revolution foods and with the team and with the families that were here tonight at rooftop so we can begin to address the concerns that have been raised and continue to improve our school meals. it will be impossible for us to meet our obligations of providing students with school meals if the board does not take action to approve a contract before the end -- you know, tonight. we've got commitments that have been made to a lot of c.b.o.'s and to a l