Commodities and school lunch: a winning combination; food from USDA helps schools keep prices low and quality high

Commodities and School Lunch: A Winning Combination

Food from USDA Helps Schools Keep Prices Low And Quality High

Everyone has heard about schoollunches. But not everyone knows that commodities from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are an important part of today's school lunch program.

Many school food service directorsdepend on USDA-donated food to serve nutritious, economical meals and to provide quality food choices.

One school district that dependson commodities is Muscogee County (Columbus), Georgia. School food director Catherine Cary believes USDA-donated products provide the best dollar value in food to students.

"The federal government canprovide more food for the dollar because it has greater purchasing power than we have locally,' she says. "I also believe in the tradition of commodities for school lunch. These are products that are grown in this country and help support our own farmers.'

Columbus school lunches continueto be a bargain. "We have kept lunch prices very low, and commodities have helped us to do this,' says Cary. "If we didn't have these foods, there would be no way that we could feed students for what we charge.'

Schools offered variety of foods

USDA donates more than 50 differentkinds of food, including ground beef, chicken, turkey, canned fruits, fruit juices, vegetables, cereals and grains, dairy products, vegetable oil, and peanut products.

Cary has found that the non-frozencommodities can be handled efficiently in the school district's warehouse system.

"For several years we used a commercialvendor system to distribute all USDA commodities to the schools. This was very satisfactory, but this year we are handling the bulk of the commodities ourselves because we have an efficient warehouse system in place.

"We feel we can save some moneysince we already have storage space, delivery workers, and trucks available,' Cary says.

Columbus has a unique school populationbecause Fort Benning, a large military base, is located there. Military families from throughout the nation and from different countries are stationed in the area. The commodities have been accepted well in all district schools, even with the various regional and ethnic food tastes of the students.

"The commodities are top quality,'says Cary, "comparable to commercial foods. We sometimes have minor problems with purchased foods and occasionally might have a minor problem with commodities. But, with the thousands of pounds of commodities we use, these problems have been minimal.'

Cary insists that students can't tellthe difference between food items made with commodities and with commercial products.

"We use the ground beef in manyways,' she says, "and we make a number of baked items, like pizza and homemade rolls, from commodity flour.'

Processing offers added flexibility

Cary pleases her customers whilecutting costs by using processing contracts with commercial firms.

"Students are accustomed to meatpatties done a certain way, and even the shape may turn a child off. But we are able to send some of our commodity ground beef to commercial processors to make different styles of patties for about 9 cents a serving.

"We would have to pay 25 cents aserving if we had to buy them commercially. We don't have to purchase any beef patties since we can process the commodity beef the way we want it,' Cary says.

Some food items cannot be madeentirely with USDA-donated foods, but processors can use one or more USDA foods and sell the final product to schools at a discount. Columbus schools buy several items that provide a rebate because they contain USDA commodities.

Assistant school food director PatSchneider says the rebate products save money and time.

"Not every school can make products,such as mayonnaise and salad dressings, that are available as rebate items,' she says.

"Even though we do a lot of "from-scratch'cooking, we're not going to make some products, like crackers, that are available with rebates. Commodity processing greatly reduces the price while still giving you a quality product.'

With the variety provided by commoditiesand processed items, Muscogee County staff feel they can compete better with local fast food operations.

"Because the commodities representa large dollar value of the food we serve, we can afford to provide even more choices from commercial foods,' says Cary.

Cary's schools are reducing fat andrestricting sodium in their meals. Many students in Muscogee County schools now choose 2-percent low-fat milk. Using commodity non-fat dry milk in cooked foods is compatible with this trend.

Managers pleased with improvements

In Florence, South Carolina, schoolfood service director Donna Pratt shares Cary's concerns about quality and cost. Like Cary, she finds that donated foods help her offer students a variety of choices at prices they can afford.

"Commodities help us serve aquality meal that meets all nutritional requirements at a reasonable price,' she says.

Like many school districts in theSoutheast, Pratt's district uses a commercial food distributor to store and deliver USDA commodities to schools.

Before the district began using acommercial vendor, Pratt used to be a consignee for commodities, which meant she had to notify other school districts when a shipment of commodities was coming in.

"I never had a real holiday since Ihad to be ready at any time to meet a railcar or truckload of commodities and oversee the distribution for hundreds of other schools,' she says.

"Many times I stood out in ice orsnow waiting for school districts to pick up their share of the foods. Needless to say, when we decided to go to commercial distributors to handle the commodities, I was ecstatic!'

Pratt now uses a statewide contractwith a commercial food vendor to store and distribute commodities to each of her 18 schools. Under the contract, the commercial warehouse stores each commodity shipment up to 60 days without any additional costs.

"One of the nice things about thevendor system,' says Pratt, "is that you are not required to take everything at one time. You can get your commodities and commercial foods delivered when you need them. This really helps since storage space is at a premium in the school kitchens.'

Donna Pratt has been school fooddirector for Florence County District One for 10 years. She still recalls her first year when the state education office asked how many commodity mixed vegetables she could use.

"Thinking we would get several shipments,I asked for 1,000 cases for the year. You can imagine my surprise when all of the cases came in at one time. We ate a lot of mixed vegetables, but we didn't waste any! I learned quickly to ask only for amounts of commodities that we could comfortably store,' Pratt laughs.

Foods used in imaginative ways

More than 10,000 students eat lunchin Florence schools each day. Forty-five percent of them receive lunches free or pay a reduced price, slightly less than the national average of 49 percent.

"Commodities are the salvation forschools that serve a low percentage of free and reduced-price lunches,' Pratt says. "Since these schools don't receive as much federal reimbursement as schools serving high numbers of free and reduced-price meals, they depend on commodities to supplement their commercial purchases and keep costs down.'

Pratt's lunch managers use a dailycontrol sheet that evaluates each food item, including commodities. "We have found the commodities to be excellent in quality,' says Pratt. "There is no difference from commercial foods. The variety of commodity products is also very good, which helps us provide more choices in our menus.'

Florence schools use the commodityground beef often for a number of different entrees--spaghetti with meat sauce, meat loaf, pizza, chili, beef-and-macaroni casserole, and the always popular hamburger. Commodity canned meats are also used in a variety of ways to lower meal costs.

"We save money by mixing in halfcanned pork with our barbecue, and the kids love it. Many of our lunch managers use the commodity tuna with lettuce, egg, cheese, and tomato in a salad plate each day,' Pratt says.

Many dessert favorites also featurecommodity foods. "Calypso cookies,' for example, are made with USDA-donated applesauce, raisins, and nonfat dry milk. Sweet potatoes, cherries, fig nuggets, and honey are other commodities used in dessert items. Honey is used in place of sugar in many recipes.

Pratt says she wouldn't be able toserve some items--cherries, for example --if they weren't provided as commodities. In some recipes, donated foods can be used instead of more expensive items.

"We never buy pecans because wehave the commodity peanuts,' says Pratt. "We use USDA honey as a sauce for our chicken nuggets, and there's no limit to the ways we use the commodity peanut butter.'

Foods are now easier to use

Pratt has been pleased with changesUSDA has made with commodities, especially in the packaging.

"I've seen a lot of improvements thatthe state advisory board has suggested. This year we are getting commodity flour in 10-pound bags, which reduces spoilage and makes it easier to handle. Ground beef is also available in smaller packages, which cut down on waste,' Pratt says.

Florence schools participate in a programthat provides rebates on commercial products that have been processed with USDA commodities. With rebates, Pratt saves money on items such as pizza, mayonnaise, salad dressings, and tartar sauce. Donna Pratt is not shy about asking for any commodity items that are available. But she hasn't forgotten the lesson from 10 years ago--to take all she needs but use all she takes.

School food service directors likeDonna Pratt and Catherine Cary know the importance of our country's farm products in the school lunch program. They also know that donated foods help them keep prices low and meal quality high--and that's what keeps their customers coming back.

For more information, contact:Catherine Cary, Director School Food Services Muscogee County Schools 1532 Fifth Ave. Room 15 Columbus, Georgia 31901 Telephone: (404) 324-5661

Donna Pratt, DirectorFood Services Department 319 South Dargan Street Florence, South Carolina 29501 Telephone: (803) 669-4141

Photo: Enriched spaghetti is one of the manyUSDA products Muscogee County staff use in preparing school meals.

Photo: Nonfrozen commodities are stored inMuscogee County's own warehouse. At the warehouse, Catherine Cary (right) and her assistant Pat Schneider look at a new shipment.

Photo: Donna Pratt (left) uses USDA tuna ina popular salad plate. Many schools serve salad dressings made with USDA ingredients.

Photo: Donna Pratt finds she can offerstudents more choices by using a variety of donated food. Her schools serve 10,000 lunches a day.

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