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

Food and Nutrition, April, 1987 by Kent Taylor

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.