School Lunch

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Cute boy eating a banana
27,000 lunches served every day
Nikka, a school girl, at lunch
67% of Oakland's school kids qualify for a discounted lunch
Kids playing at lunch
1 serving of fresh fruit is offered at every meal

In November, we followed one meal served at a west Oakland elementary school from start to finish. We traced the ingredients to their earliest beginnings: a wheat field in North Dakota, a turkey ranch in the Central Valley, a tomato field somewhere south of Oregon and north of Mexico in California.

READ THE FULL STORY OF THE INGREDIENTS by Laurel Moorhead

We followed the ingredients to an Oakland Unified School District central kitchen, where they were cooked, mixed and packaged for distribution to schools. Finally, we witnessed the meal reach its ultimate destination: the bellies of the students at Hoover Elementary.

READ THE FULL STORY OF THE CENTRAL KITCHENS by Lillian Mongeau

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$3.01
Amount of per-meal-reimbursement that OUSD Nutrition Services receives to create, distribute, and serve a school lunch.
664
Minimum number of calories the USDA requires for each school lunch.
$28.6k
Salary for a family of four, under which a child from that family qualifies for a free school lunch.
67%
Amount of Oakland public school students that qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
$15 mill
Yearly budget for OUSD Nutrition Services.
47%
Amount of yearly budget OUSD Nutrition Services spends on food.
7
Number of stops the pasta in "Pasta w/ Meat Sauce," an item on the OUSD menu, makes on its way from field to table. See Full Story.

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assembling a meal
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speed lunch at hoover elementary
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