K-12 Schools

Operations

Maine looks at longer school lunch periods

Also in this week’s legislative update: Nevada’s summer school students may soon be served breakfast and lunch, and universal free meals bills move forward in Montana and Vermont.

Operations

LAUSD reaches agreement with union workers

Cafeteria staff and other service employees at the Los Angeles school district are set to receive a 30% wage increase, fully paid healthcare benefits and more.

Director Joe Urban has come up with a menu development process that ensures dishes are both cost effective and exciting for students.

The foodservice management company will develop new plant-based recipes and tweak some vegetarian dishes to be fully free of animal products.

The proposed rule would lower the percentage of low-income students required for schools and districts to participate in the program, which enables serving free meals to all students.

Also in this week’s K-12 legislative update: Pennsylvania looks to continue its universal free breakfast program and a federal bill would require schools to serve soy milk.

Over 23 million breakfasts have been served to students through the program, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

The workers, represented by SEIU Local 99, are calling for higher wages, more full-time work and increased staffing levels.

A recent survey showed that 126 school districts in the state have accumulated a total of $1,414,122.86 in current unpaid school meal debt as of March 2023.

The state would join California, Maine and Colorado in offering universal free meals at school.

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