SFUSD food prep site moves from long-suffering school

Students at Visitation Valley Middle School will have an easier time hearing what's going on in class this school year, when the production facility for the SFUSD school lunch program moves from their campus to a new site in Brisbane on August 6.

The giant 18-wheeler trucks currently delivering all district meals and supplies to the Viz Valley campus will no longer be rattling across their schoolyard from 6am on. Three giant refrigeration units which held the district's meals, and created a racket which drifted into classrooms, will be gone as well.

The new 22,500 square foot state-of-the-art Brisbane facility, owned and operated by SFUSD's meal provider Preferred Meal Systems, allows all production site work to be
done in a climate controlled environment. Food and supplies will be received from loading docks and quickly moved to proper refrigeration in a completely food-safe environment.

All government-required Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) food safety procedures can be easily followed in the new facility, something which provided enormous challenges at the 1,000 square foot Viz Valley site. The lack of facilities at Viz Valley was problematic not only for ensuring health and safety of students, but also for employees working at the site. All those employees have been reassigned to other positions within Student Nutrition Services, with no layoffs or reductions in hours.

The new production facility will be able to provide backup meals and supplies which can quickly be delivered to sites when shortages arise, so students should no longer see last-minute menu substitutions. The Brisbane site also will house enough emergency meals for the entire district in the event of catastrophe; for example, if a massive power failure resulted in many schools being unable to heat up their meals, the emergency meals, which are designed to be served right off the shelf, could quickly be provided so that students would not be left with no lunch. The smaller Viz Valley facility was not able to handle either situation adequately.

But for the students of Viz Valley, the peace and quiet resulting from no longer having to share their school with the production site for the largest public feeding program in San Francisco is the best news of all.