Lunch at Sunset Hill

One of our Facebook group members wrote in about her son at Sunset Hill.  Remember that Sunset Hill's meals are made at Oakwood and transported to Sunset Hill:

"Thank you for all that you are doing to improve the food and health in our schools. My son has literally eaten hot lunch for the last 1.5 years. He made it his goal last year to never bring home lunch. 🙂 As of today, he said he’s pretty much done with hot lunch. 🙁 He is a 3rd grader at Sunset Hill and isn’t too much of a picky eater- so it speaks volumes that he would rather now have home lunch. He said the food isn’t good. The food isn’t even hot, it's dried out or mushy by the time he eats around 12:30. He gave an example of how the shredded cheese for burritos or walking taco type meal is being served frozen or is still in frozen chunks. They put it on top of lukewarm meat and he said it is just bad. I haven’t gone to eat with him this year because he said they have maybe 10 minutes to eat and they get called in late from outside frequently or have to stand in line outside for several minutes waiting to go in only to stand in line again. Waiting outside is just one more thing that chips away at actual eating time. We are fortunate enough to be able to send him with good home lunches, but so sad for those that get this as their one “good” meal each day. We previously lived in the Hopkins district, and the food was so much better! It has been a huge disappointment to us how Wayzata has dealt with the school lunches. Thank you again for taking this issue on!!!!"

Coming from Hopkins to Wayzata is definitely eye opening as Hopkins has an amazing farm to school lunch program! 

Lunch at Kimberly Lane

One of our Facebook group members had lunch at Kimberly Lane a few days ago.  This was the experience:
"I had lunch at Kimberly Lane today. My 2nd grader's lunch is from 11:12 to 11:32 and there were 4 classrooms in the cafeteria. Kids started trickling in at 11:13. My daughter's class was the last to come in. All children were in winter gear. She grabbed her water bottle from the bin set outside of the cafeteria and this did not seem to take more than a few seconds. We were in line and we sat down after 6 minutes of lunch started. The last kid got served 8 minutes after lunch started. There were fresh bananas and plums and some sort of canned pear, I believe. I noticed on our table that most (2/3) of kids that got school lunches did not finish what they put on their trays. There was an INSANE amount of food waste, primarily fruits and vegetables. Whole bananas were being thrown in the garbage. At this point, I called one of the lunch paras and she instructed the children to put whole fruit and unopened milk cartons in the bin on top of the island (by the trash bins). I saw one of my daughter's classmates frantically trying to finish her meal as her tray sat on this same island, which was disheartening. The lunch paras wiped the tables. They might have been told to stop eating about 2 minutes before the end of the period."

Another group member from Kimberly Lane wrote about the recess experience:

"Kimberly Lane has recess before lunch. The kids need to line up outside and be totally silent before being allowed to come in for lunch. If any kids are talking or being loud, the line is forced to wait outside until everyone is quiet. My daughter has several kids in her class who are regularly talking so even if her class is supposed to be first in the lunch line that day, because of the "silent requirement," they do not get to go first. This means that most days, she has 15 minutes or less to get her food, eat and clean up and lots of food goes to waste. She has asked her classroom teacher if she can bring her lunch back to the classroom to finish eating, but that is not allowed. Because she is so hungry in the afternoon, she is forced to bring a large amount of snacks everyday."

Meal Transportation Between Buildings

Our group members were curious: how does the prepared food transportation between school buildings work, as not all of our schools have kitchens?

Culinary Express responded with this information:

Oakwood makes and cooks hot entrees for Sunset Hill and Birchview. North Woods makes and cooks hot entrees for Greenwood. All other buildings have kitchens. The hot entrees are put into hot holding cabinets that are made for transport. Once the containers arrive at the satellite school, they are moved into the school and plugged in. Prior to serving, a temperature check is conducted to assure food safety. Only cold prep is done in the satellite kitchens as they are not built to handle more.

The hot carts for Greenwood get picked up at 8:20am (first lunch at 10:10) in the morning and the hot carts for Birchview (first lunch at 10:45) and Sunset Hill (first lunch at 10:45) get picked up at 9:00am. Cooking for these sites typically start 1-1 1/2 hours before the carts get picked up, depending on the menu item. After the hot carts are picked up for satellite sites, Oakwood and North Woods will then start prepping/cooking for the onsite portion. With onsite kitchens being able to do batch cooking, it is hard to give an exact time as to how much longer a food item could potentially be held in the warmers. For example, pizza is batch cooked by onsite kitchens. Pizza is a harder item to transport. The homemade pizza sticks do hold up better than a pizza slice or round. However, on like taco meat or spaghetti/alfredo sauce days, onsite kitchens will be making larger batches of these and holding them. Hope this helps clarify some of the timing portion.

Try It Tuesday

Yesterday was Try It Tuesday in the elementary schools, featuring honey mustard dill Brussels sprouts!  The kids really enjoyed them, and parents appreciated them, too:

"Great reviews from my Sunset Hill third grader.. and I can’t ever get her to eat brussel sprouts! She said I can make them at home and she’ll eat them now! Thank you, thank you for this!!! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽""

It was also the second time the kids were offered real chicken drumsticks.  They received great reviews the first time around, and were a hit yesterday, too.

"Kids I've seen have really liked the new lunch items, especially the chicken legs - some kids didn't know how to eat them, so there was some teaching on my end for that item but once they got started, they liked them a lot."

Isn't that amazing feedback?  Culinary Express is having a wonderful new impact on our district's kids.

Many kids have said the drumsticks are too small and that they would like two of them.  We contacted Culinary Express about this and suggested they bulk up the side dishes on drumstick day.  Happily we learned they were already working on this, and were trying to perfect a side dish for the January menu.

If you'd like to try the sprouts for yourself, here is the recipe!

School Board Election Update

Thank you to all who voted!  Congratulations to Seanne Falconer and Linda Cohen, who have shown support for our mission.

Congratulations to the following four candidates who have been elected to serve four-year terms on the Wayzata School Board:
• Linda Cohen (1,425)
• Seanne Falconer (1,075)
• Bonita Lucky (1,133)
• Cheryl Polzin (1,441)

Newly-elected Board members will begin their terms at the January 13, 2020 organizational meeting. Wayzata School Board meetings are typically held the second Monday of the month at Wayzata City Hall at 7 p.m. The Board also conducts work sessions the fourth Monday of every month at 4 p.m. at the District Administration Building, located at 210 County Road 101 in Plymouth.

School Board Election Information: How to Vote

Question: As a first-time voter, can you explain how the election voting works?

There are 7 school board seats in addition to the superintendent. Some of these seats come up for election every two years. 4 seats are up for election this year. 3 existing school board members, called "incumbents" are seeking reelection: Linda Cohen, Bonita Lucky, and Cheryl Polzin.

When you go to your polling place on November 5, (you may find where to vote here: https://pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us/ ) you will be presented with a ballot that looks similar to this picture. You may vote for up to 4 candidates, but you DO NOT have to vote for 4. If you only support 1 or 2 candidates, you only need to vote for 1 or 2. In fact, it is a better idea to only vote for the candidates you truly support.

As a reminder, the candidates who showed true interest in our cause early in the campaign are: Linda Cohen, Seanne Falconer, Bindu Moram, and Sheila Prior. Of these, we believe the candidate who will represent us best is Seanne Falconer.

Early voting is still available through November 4 at the Wayzata Public Schools District Administration Building (210 County Road 101 N, Plymouth). Hours are M- F, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Residents of Minnetonka vote at Minnetonka City Hall Friday, September 20 through Monday, November 4.