@Mike, that’s why he’s doing this at charter schools.

hahaha @ Tex

As someone who lives in this world a bit, a few points:

$1.82 without labor. $1.82 in simple food costs, perhaps. Just something to keep in mind and something Vetri fails to mention every time. The reality is that with all school meal programs, labor accounts for the largest percentage (or nearly) of the approximately $2.75 reimbursement rate schools receive through the National School Lunch Program. I truly wonder what his labor costs are; understanding the more granular details would be beneficial to true cost-effective analyses, scale-up, and program replication.

I applaud his efforts, and am glad he found charter schools able and willing to pay more for his services (and I can assure you they are paying more), but not all schools are created equal. Further, not all charters are created equal. Wissahickon Charter has long had an interest in improving their meals and spending more per student, but many charters still cannot secure additional funds for meals, nor can (or will) reallocate funds away from academics to food service.

I certainly wish all schools put more towards feeding their students well, as it enables better learning, better health outcomes, and improved behavior. But the reality is that the disparities among the haves and have-nots in the public school realm continues to widen. In the meanwhile, Vetri’s youngest consumers are among the luckiest and the youngest kids in District schools and public charters have little option but to take what is offered and make the best of some really low-quality food.

If more people realized that what you eat directly affects school performance, behavior, attitude, etc., changing school lunchs would be a priority.