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
- $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% Percentage of Oakland public school students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
- $15 million: Yearly budget for OUSD Nutrition Services.
- 47%: Percentage 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.
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