School district served 15 million meals last year

Over 15 million were served last year.

If this sounds like a McDonald's restaurant, guess again. It's the number of meals prepared by the Clark County School District Food Services Central Kitchen.

"We keep growing and it's our job to make sure all of the students are fed," said Sue Hoggan, a Food Service Department supervisor. Like everything else in the Clark County School District, the central kitchen continues to expand.

Since it was built in 1971, the central kitchen's operation has grown twenty-fold. Originally designed to produce around 4,000 meals a day, the kitchen now produces more than 81,000.

Not only big in scope, the central kitchen of the nation's eighth-largest school district is big business. Last year, the operation tallied expenses of $33.7 million and revenues of $36.1 million.

Calling the Arville Street facility a kitchen is misleading. Cranking out 5 million pounds of food a year, it's more like a factory.

If 15 million meals a year seems staggering, consider this: District-wide, that number totals about 30 million, said Charles Peterson, central kitchen supervisor. That's because the central kitchen prepares meals for elementary schools, but middle and high schools all have their own food production facilities on site.

A warehouse-size freezer and a dry warehouse are stockpiled to the rafters with food products. A fleet of trucks transports food items throughout the far-flung district.

The central kitchen is also home to a bakery that rolls out whole-wheat doughnuts and cinnamon rolls, 8,000 and 5,000 a day, respectively.

Early in the morning, workers are pushing rows of breakfast cinnamon rolls on metal carts into ovens the size of elevators. After they are baked, the confections are frosted and sent to schools throughout the district.

"The dough contains 10 different ingredients," bakery worker trainee Janice Matthews said of the cinnamon rolls. "Then, we add the goop to them. That's the cinnamon, sugar and butter."

On another production line, whole-wheat doughnuts scurry down a conveyor belt. Nearby, workers scramble to stuff frozen french-toast sticks into paper trays.

Next comes the lunch items. Hamburger buns, lids open, march down a conveyor belt, where workers slip in slices of turkey. Near the loading dock, stacks of packaged celery sticks and peaches are ready to be shipped.

Eventually, the food ends up before the district's pupils. That, too, is a production.

It's almost noon and the kitchen crew at Cartwright Elementary School in south Las Vegas, wearing hair nets, plastic gloves and white aprons, is ready to start doling out the first batch of lunches.

"This is fun," they say, plopping scoops of bright mandarin oranges, golden corn and beef-covered nachos on white plastic foam plates. The crew won't be paid for its efforts, but they will receive a free meal.

They're only in fifth-grade, after all. Besides, kitchen duty has other benefits.

"It's pretty good," said fifth-grader Dana De Leo. "We get to get out of class 5 or 10 minutes early to come here."

The pupils are not only helping out their peers. They also are helping fill another need: A shortage of workers.

"They really help out a lot," Hoggan said.

The growing elementary school population, representing nearly half of the total 13,362 student population growth over the past year, takes a big bite out of the central kitchen. Since elementary schools don't have their own full-service kitchens, meals are cooked in the central kitchen or nearby middle or high schools and then shipped to the schools where the food is reheated the next day.

Nearly 40 percent of all elementary and middle school students in the school district are eligible for free or reduced breakfasts and lunches. High school students don't participate in the program, Hoggan said.

And schools have to make sure students receiving free or reduced lunches are not identified to their peers. At Cartwright, that means using a code on a lap top computer that simply shows a student's meals are paid for. It does not indicate whether the students meals are pre-paid, or free or reduced priced.

Free and reduced lunches literally fill a need for hungry children in the district.

"We really do serve a need in the community," said Carol Lark, principal of C.P. Squires Elementary School near downtown Las Vegas. Street.

And as the student population grows, the issue of overcrowding can be seen inside schools with smaller lunchroom areas.

Lark, who has experienced that problem, said she was pleased with the School Board's recent approval of design plans for an expansion at her school.

"We really need it," she said.

Beyond the school food programs, the school district contracts with local housing authorities and youth clubs year round to provide meals for disadvantaged children.

When pupils eat, what's on their plate? Meals are selected by a school district dietician who ensures that federal nutrition guidelines are met.

Hoggan said one of the complaints she frequently hears from parents is that students are not getting enough fruits and vegetables.

"We have to serve food that the children are going to eat," she said.

Hoggan also pointed out that children need extra energy and that's why high-calorie items like oatmeal cookies, whole wheat doughnuts and cinnamon rolls are offered.

Even after it's served, the food is being monitored.

One of Hoggan's roles involves serving on the district's "food police" patrol. She and other supervisors drive around to various school locations, making sure that the food is OK and the facilities meet health department codes.

Sandy Phare, another supervisor, wasn't satisfied with the beef nachos lunch recently served at Cartwright. The mandarin oranges were a little soggy, the oatmeal cookies were crumbled and the beef "needed something," she said.

One of the students complained that the meal was cold.

Almost instantly Phare is on her cell phone, seeing what can be done.

"Maybe we could get the mandarin oranges canned instead of frozen," she said, rattling off a list of other possibilities.

For the most part, the students didn't seem to think anything was wrong with their lunch.

A survey of several pupils revealed that chicken and pizza are favorites; fish nuggets are not.

Cartwright first grader Robbi Vowell is one of the easier customers.

"I like the pizza," she said. "And all of the cookies."

But she chooses her options wisely.

"No hot sauce," she said. "It makes me feel like my mouth is on fire."

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