Welcome to the district, Mr. Cordon!

I have two children currently in the school district. I try to teach them about healthy eating, which means many things, but one thing is to try to make sugary food an occasional "treat" than a regular part of one's diet.

So I was surprised to learn that the district does not offer half-pints of whole milk to kids having lunch, but does offer low-fat sweetened chocolate milk.

Just last week the New York Times ran a story (Web Link which ended thus:

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Dr. Mozaffarian said the research suggested that health authorities should pivot away from fat restrictions and encourage people to eat fewer processed foods, particularly those with refined carbohydrates.

The average person may not pay much attention to the federal dietary guidelines, but their influence can be seen, for example, in school lunch programs, which is why many schools forbid whole milk but serve their students fat-free chocolate milk loaded with sugar, Dr. Mozaffarian said.
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I would very much like to find out more about the policies and values guiding Mr. Cordon's work here in the MVWSD.

Improvement cannot happen soon enough. I'm appalled by the food served to growing children in the school lunch program in MV-- it's really a disgrace.

I rarely let my child eat school lunches but when I occasionally need to, I hear about him being fed hot dogs, hamburgers that are burned on the outside and cold in the middle, and apple slices that "taste like chemicals."

This seems like a step in the right direction, at last. Moms will be watching :)

My son who is in 7th grade has described better (tastier) lunches this year. He likes the chicken burgers, plums, and abiluty to make his own salad. Thank you.

The Administration of the MVWSD did almost all the work on this change-over (they were helped with grant funding). This program of switching the traditional food supplier for MVWSD, trying to go out for 'a contract' and then adapting to 'inadequate contract proposals' was an example (IMO) of great adaptability on the part of the DO management.
As with all customer service points - Continuous Improvement - will, again In My Opinion, be the mark of an excellent future food service system - or a so-so one. Mom's Survey? Monitored by the Board?

SN is an elected Trustee of the MVWSD, who occasionally, likes to 'get a jump on posting' over Trustee Chris Chang or Trustee Ellen Wheeler. This method of providing food service was on the Board Agenda several months ago, and Trustee Chiang has been (IMO) the point-man on this food issue. cchiang@mvwsd.org

I'm reminded of the movie "Supersize Me", which included a segment about school lunches and their effect on learning. The segment described one high school who had many problems with behavior and discipline. That school also had an initiative for healthier eating, which involved removing sugary soft drinks from vending machines and replacing them with fruit juices, and providing healthier lunches.

Almost overnight the school administrators noticed a positive change: students more attentive, better behaved, test scores went up, etc.

Ever since I saw that film, I have wondered how much the nationally abysmal quality of California public schools can be attributed to what we're feeding our kids.

Alex, probably 100%. The other day I watched a movie where Denzel flew a plane upside down and saved like 200 lives! Let's just all live. In a society where we can "blame" and not take any responsibility for what OUR children eat. It takes like 5 minutes to cut a fruit, make a sandwich throw a Capri sun in a bag and send your kid off to school. As your children turn into young adults are you gonna blame other outside factors as to why your daughter smokes weed, or your son is promiscuous? Yeah, it's the food that's the reason your child got a D-. Just use coca cola, or watch another movie.

This is definitely a step in the right direction. I think as parents our biggest challenge is to have easy and up to date access to school lunch menus so we can know what our kids are being offered in their school. I recently talked to a friend in San Diego who is thrilled about a new Mobile lunch Menu App (Yumyummi Digital School menus) that the San Diego Unified School District is using. Students and parents are now able to see their daily menus on smartphones. That's just amazing and I would love to have this in our district in Santa Clara. Maybe the should check to see if our district is planning to do an app. I am hopeful that school administrators will really start to offer nutritious food in the coming years.

Best,
Karen