A users' guide to SFUSD school lunches

What’s for lunch in your San Francisco public schools?

o Lunch is served in the cafeteria at every San Francisco Unified School District school, from kindergarten to 12th grade, during the school lunch periods.

o Lunch is free to students who qualify for free and reduced-price meals, based on the National School Lunch Program meal application. Prices for other students are $2.00 in elementary (K-5) schools, $2.50 in middle (6-8) schools and $3.00 in high schools. There is no singling out or identifying low-income students. The price for adults is $3.50.

o Some examples of lunch menus:
• Orange chicken with rice and vegetables, applesauce and breadstick
• Bean and cheese burrito with buttered corn and orange wedges
• Turkey ham and cheese on whole wheat bread, zucchini sticks and pineapple tidbits
• Patty melt sandwich with oven potatoes and fresh apple

o The meals meet National School Lunch Program nutritional requirements for calories, nutrients, less than 30% calories from fat, and more. Lunches include a fruit, a vegetable, a protein, a grain and milk.

o Salad bars are offered as part of the meal in middle and high schools and some elementary schools; elementary schools without salad bars offer a cut up fresh vegetable —- such as celery, zucchini sticks, jicama, or baby carrots — several days a week.

o Breads, rolls, pasta and pizza crusts are whole grain.

o Dessert is fresh fruit four days a week; the fifth is unsweetened applesauce or pineapple bits packed in juice, not syrup.

o No SFUSD menu items are deep-fried. Potatoes are served only four times a month — always baked, not fried.

o Chicken nuggets — also not fried — are made from whole pieces of breast meat rather than the common chopped-and-formed dark meat.

o SFUSD meals never contain pork or peanut products.

o SFUSD meals contain no MSG, artificial colors, added animal fats or tropical oils.

o A vegetarian entrée is available every day, but should be preordered a few days in advance through the cafeteria staff. About 4 days a month, a vegetarian entrée is offered to all students with no preordering required.

o At high schools, one entrée is always offered that is 50% larger than the others, to make sure larger appetites are satisfied.

o Except for preordering the vegetarian entrée, students do not need to sign up or pay for lunch in advance and may just come to the cafeteria. However, high school and middle school students should have their ID card with them or their PIN number (from the card) memorized.

o The school district’s new cafeteria prepayment program, MealpayPlus, now allows families to prepay for meals to help speed up service and allow the cafeteria staff to focus on feeding the students rather than handling payments. Register and prepay with credit card, debit card or electronic check at www.mealpayplus.com (registration uses the student number, beginning with H-zero, which is on report cards and other school materials).

o Breakfast is also offered in nearly every school. School breakfast and lunch menus are posted on this blog.

o Students must fill out the National School Lunch Program meal application to qualify for free/reduced-price lunch. It’s essential that all families return the form so that low-income students aren’t singled out. The application is available at school offices. Meal applications are distributed and collected at the start of each school year, but may be submitted any time. If there has been a change in family income that may qualify the student, the family is especially urged to file a new application at any time of year. Families that listed temporary income on an application also need to file new applications after 90 days.