Hot Lunch Survey

Please take a brief Beach Hot Lunch Survey to let the BPO know your thoughts and ideas regarding the program and any possible changes. The survey will be active April 25 through May 9.

You are also invited to attend the May 12 BPO meeting at 7:00 pm when we will be voting for 2008-2009 BPO Board, BPO Budget, and Hot Lunch program.

Survey says…

The survey is completed. Read the Survey Summary results.

BPO Meeting Minutes 4/7/08

Call to order – 7:00 pm.

Attendees - Sue Lin, Sherrie Jewett, Kimberly Moses, Julie Valdez, Pam Rafanelli, Julia Anable, Sabrina Lui-Casey, Leslie Estrada, Mark Aikawa, Joe Loduca, Teermatie Rampersad-Taylor, Teresa Stricker, Laura Katter, Carolina Klockow, Elizabeth Shook, Kimberly Moses, Maryann Tucker, Deidre Coen, Sandy Rappaport, Jamie Pehanick, Darlene Lo, Leslie Frankel, Eliza Chin, Nagisa Yamamoto, Bob Houser, Susan Miller-Davis, Jean Jarvis, John Creighton, Roy Tolles, Leshia Manley

Revolution Food Tasting for Hot Lunch 2008-09 Decision – Kristin Groos Richmond (founder & CEO), Amy Klein (Executive Chef), Elizabeth Warren (School Account Manager)

Revolution Foods is a healthy food service option and it is much more than just food service.  The company was started in 2006 by two UC Berkeley Haas Business School graduates.  The company is headquartered in Alameda has grown to serving 5000 meals per day and including a new Los Angeles branch too.  They collaborate with each school and an account manager is assigned & on site for start-up and also continuously takes feedback and incorporates it back into the menu and process.   They will be as involved with the school as the school will allow them to be.

The Tasting this evening was great!  You should have been there!  Chicken noodle & vegetable soup, tamales, and a butternut squash dish.  All of it was fresh, hot, and very tasty – a home-made comfort taste!!!

There was a question about peanuts.  There are no peanut products anywhere at their site but the facility does use some almonds & walnuts for faculty meals.  These will likely be eliminated next school year so they can be a “nut free” facility. 

Each day, there is a vegetarian version & non-dairy version of the meal and there is always a cold lunch that includes a sandwich, fruit and milk.  There is a 3 day per week minimum order on a school level but parents can choose fewer.  Everyday there is a cold option alias “fieldtrip lunch”:  Turkey sandwich or vegetarian hummis sandwich & a piece of fruit. 

There is an a la carte program and basically if you see it on a shelf at Whole Foods Market, then Revolution Foods can get it for the school at a special bulk price.  They can also cater school functions and do bulk purchases for you (i.e. a healthy snack or smart water for a testing day). 

They do lots of education and it includes before school events for parents and orientations & tastings for kids.  They provide ongoing materials about food and nutrition for kids and a newsletter for parents.  They have also done tastings with individual classes and the children give feedback to the Chefs!

The order cycle is typically 1 week before each month that parents review the monthly menu, choose the days they want, pay & order.  Most schools have just one volunteer or staff person to administer and serve the meals.  Revolution Foods requires a training session that involves going through one page on food safety with the volunteers. 

The school needs to decide between two options for ordering – 1) Allows for the ability to fund raise = Parents order online & the order is sent to a school point person who places the orders & collects money from parents.  Revolution Foods then bills the school at their base cost of $3.50.  This option would allow BPO to add an amount to the base cost to continue to meet the fund raising needs of the school.   Mill Valley does it this way & Revolution provided a three month menu for them to ease their administration process.   2)  The second option is direct to Revolution foods and parents order and pay online & each meal is $4.

Please Email questions to Kristin Groos Richmond (founder & CEO) at krichmond@revfoods.com or you can also email Kimberly Moses at              kjaymoses@mopo.com.  Revolution Foods website is www.revfoods.com and it contains information about the company, food, & people.

A parent asked for a list of schools & Kristin will provide to Kimberly.  There are over 50 schools Pre-Kindergarten through 12 but they are also starting up with a preschool.  They also offer food for after school programs and summer schools and they offer breakfasts and snacks in addition to lunches.

Education and introduction is very important to the success of starting the program and Revolution partners with the school to do it.

Revolution Foods left the meeting after their presentation and the BPO continued discussion.  There was a show of hands for who was ready to vote yes to make this change to Revolution Foods tonight.  Only one person was uncertain.  This wasn’t an official vote.

One parent asked if lunch service should be a fund-raising activity (it is currently and raises $9000-15,000 annually for the BPO to fund programs and special requests at Beach School).   There was some discussion both pro & con.  But, this could be a lengthy topic, especially in light of the state budget crisis, so it was agreed to table it until the May BPO meeting.

One parent said we should just give samples to people & their kids & forget about the work of a survey & May vote because the food speaks for itself.   The Revolution Food group’s dedication, enthusiasm, and REALLY GOOD FOOD just can’t be articulated in a survey.  But, we will do survey because need to have input from the larger Beach community.

It would be good to do an orientation and tasting with kids & parents before the vote in May. 

Ms. Valdez spoke for the teachers & they are comfortable with whatever choice is made but they do really appreciate the current free meals on Fridays.  They understand the economic situation, especially now with the state budget crisis, and may be interested in meals at cost.

Another parent talked about what a huge difference between the proposed food service option last year & this year’s choice.  It is so much better with Revolution Foods in terms of overall program, price and recyclable issues of last year.

Secretary’s Report – March 3 meeting minutes were approved.

Principal Report – Julie Valdez

Math curriculum selection is going on & we are thinking more deeply and strategically so not ready yet & not sure if we will have a final selection by May 15. The K-5 district-wide adoption goal was to be have the selection ready for the May district board meeting & 30 days afterwards for feedback.  Sarah Kingston will be at the BPO May meeting to give an update on Beach’s Math support.  We will also hear from Ms. Griffin on the Technology update.

Piedmont is the only district that Ms. Valdez knows of that is not cutting staff due to the state budget cuts.  Ms. Valdez stated that as parent boards consider their budgets for 2008-09, additional district support dollars will go directly to your kids even though it’s going to the district.  It’s direct because the district is not cutting positions.  The School District’s commitment is to prevent cuts to any main core program.  This is a crisis! 

This week is culture week & activities began today.  Wed is an all school assembly.

President’s Report – Sue Lin

Garden day this last Sunday at Beach was well attended.

We have a new BPO advisory committee that is participating with the district in the Measure E decisions and plans.  Mark Aikawa is here tonight to explain its purpose (see below under Committee Reports).  The committee is open to join but need at least a one year commitment.

At the last APCP (Associated Parent Clubs of Piedmont), there was a discussion among the parent club presidents about increasing our support towards the district budget.  The BPO Budget Committee met on April 4 to discuss the option of increasing our district support an additional $100 per student for next year.  BPO currently contributes $200 per student; this would raise our support to $300 per student.   Our BPO Budget committee is recommending to our parent club members a one time increase of $100 per student in support of the district’s decision not to hand out  layoff notices for 2008-09 and protect our programs as they currently exist for the next school year.  What has happened for next year’s district budget is that the district is using its $500,000 parcel tax reserves one year earlier than anticipated.  To offset utilizing the Parcel Tax reserves the PEF? And parent clubs expressed interest in helping the District keep a “qualified” financial rating by donating additional monies from our reserves.  For 2009-10, the projected district shortfall is approximately $1.3 million if the Governor’s across the board $10 cut is implanted in June 2008.   The district may need to change programs in the future if the budget crisis at the state level is not changed for 2009-10.  Parents interested in the details of the district budget concerns should attend the Budget Advisory Committee Meetings.

The BPO retained earnings have the resources to provide the district an additional $100 / student so Beach has 282 students and that means a total of $28,200 from BPO reserve fund.  Currently, the need is a one time request to “patch a hole” in the current budget without reducing staff.

Treasurer’s Report – Sue Lin for Amal Smith

By May, will have all information and expenses in so a better idea of year end.

Committee Reports

Measure E – Mark Aikawa – There are concerned parents at Beach and this committee is sponsored by BPO to participate in the decisions regarding Measure E.  The purpose of the committee is to be involved in the process, to understand it and help the school district to make decisions on how the $56 million will be spent and to make sure all schools get upgraded for seismic & life & fire safety issues.  They want to help ensure there are contingencies for overruns & help planning during construction.  The draft plan is that Beach is the last school to be worked on because of its level of safety compared to the other Piedmont school sites.  So, the concern is that there may not be enough funds at the end for its work especially if funds will be used towards building a new Havens school. 

Roy Tolles, School Board rep, said it was great to hear that there is Beach involvement & encouraged dialogue.  Wed April 9 is the next Piedmont School district board meeting 6pm – 10pm?   They will likely schedule another board meeting to finish discussion as this will likely be over one hour & a decision is needed by end of May.  There are no detail engineering plans so difficult to determine phases but need to get involved now.  

Anyone is invited to get involved on his Beach committee and the commitment is a year but maybe longer due to length of projects.  The committee also includes:  Mark D’Ambrosi, Chee Keong Lin, Brian Pometta, John Creighton, Eric Parker, Sue Lin, & Lisa Joyce.

Nominating Committee – Joe Loduca.   There has been great success in filling BPO volunteer positions for next year.  Spring Auction & After school Enrichment are positions NOT yet filled for next year.  These are really important so please contact Joe (jloduca@pacbell.net or 428-4944) if you are interested!

Green Committee – Margaret Ovenden  

There is a Green Committee meeting this Tuesday (4/8) to discuss solar panels, garden grounds, and other green matters. 

60 people attended the April 2^nd parent education event on children’s environmental health.

May 8 there is a Green schools event in the evening to learn and build synergies with the other Piedmont schools and details will be in the Wed News.

Parent Education – Margaret Ovenden – Parenting with positive discipline is scheduled for May 7^th in the Wildwood Library & more details will be in the Wed news.

Meeting adjourned 9:05 pm

Beach Earth Week Celebration, April 28-May 2

4/28 Monday~ kick off!

• School Assembly
• No trash lunch challenge
• Addition of recycling container at lunch tables

4/29 Tuesday~ Energy Efficiency Day

(Turn the light bulb on in your head; turn it off in your room!)

• Keep thermostats down, turn off lights, unplug appliances, etc.
• Recess activity-solar pizza oven!

4/30 Wednesday~ Walk to School Day (minimum day)

• “Walking School Bus” 8:00-8:25 AM

• Everyone who can, walk, bike or scooter to school!
• Treats, coffee and juice to greet the walkers
• After school community service event- 12:10-2:30
  • join with Wildwood kids to clean up Piedmont park
  • RSVP to rhodburn@comcast.net

5/1 Thursday~ May Day Farmer’s Market

• Garden craft project
• Produce tasting/discuss sustainability/organic farming

5/2 Friday~ Green Day

• Everyone wear GREEN or Beach goes Green t-shirts
• Measure garbage at lunch-see how we did for the challenge
• Planting of the “McHugh” trees at Beach