School District 6 meal program in the red, again

The revenue for the School District 6 meal program is down this year more than in past years.

Meals served in 2015 decreased a little more than a thousand, from 245,798 in 2014 to 244,959 in 2015. Total revenue in 2015 decreased to $858,419 from $865,547 in 2014.

Business Manager Dustin Zuffelato told the school board last week that he would keep an eye on it before it becomes a bigger problem at the end of the school year. To cut cost, he said they will look at limiting certain meal options or cutting the breakfast program. Also, they may talk to the union workers in the food service program.

“Some would say hourly wage and benefits are high,” Zuffelato said.

It is a challenge for the program to create a meal using the federal reimbursement of $3.10 per meal. Also the program has to follow the updated nutrition standards of The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act and the Smart Snacks in School regulation that limits the calories, fat, sodium and portion sizes for foods and beverages sold in vending machines, snack bars and a la carte lines.

The a la carte revenue is down by about $50,000 this year. Zuffelato said that these sales typically generate a substantial profit margin to supplement the program. 

“The regulations have negatively impacted student participation, costs, revenues, and food waste,” Zuffelato said in an update to the school board.

In response to the regulations, Zuffelato said that Food Service Director Laurie Iunghuhn has worked hard to make the meals more attractive. Iunghuhn didn’t respond for comment before presstime.

However, this year didn’t have the biggest operating deficit in the past 10 years. In 2009, the food service program had a deficit of $130,713, which is taken from the school’s general fund budget. The deficit this year is $44,678. 

“Overall that program has always struggled to stay in the black,” Zuffelato said. He said that schools around the country struggle as well. But districts still find a way to purchase local food.

According to a census by the United States Department of Agriculture, Columbia Falls students are eating local foods every week.

School District 6 self-reported that it participated in the Farm to School program in the 2013-2014 school year.

Schools across the country purchased nearly $600 million worth of food locally in 2013-2014 school year, a 55 percent increase over 2011-2012 when the first Farm to School Census was conducted.  Local is defined by each district differently, but most commonly it means within the state or within 50 miles. Columbia Falls schools defines it as food produced within Montana.

Columbia Falls spent about $18,000 for the school year on local food. The district expects local purchases to increase. It reported that it didn’t purchase more local products for the following reasons: a limited year-round availability of key items, higher prices and lack of reliability in delivering ordered items. These answers were part of a list of 20 possible choices.

The district reported that greater community support for school meals was a positive benefit of the program. The district is part of the 39 percent of districts in the nation with farm to school programs that experienced this benefit.

The district also expressed a desire to have a FoodCorps volunteer help with the program. FoodCorps is a nationwide team of AmeriCorps leaders who connect kids to real food and help them grow up healthy. In 1950, 70 percent of the food Montanans ate was grown and processed in Montana, according to FoodCorps. Today that number is 10 percent.

The Farm to School census for the 2014-2015 school year will be available in 2016.