School District 81 Expands Food Programs

Doug Wordell knows food nourishes more than the body. Director of nutrition services at Spokane School District 81, Wordell says meal-room staff are in a position to get close to kids.

“Serving food is a caring thing to do. At Bancroft, we had a kid who needed to take an anger management class, and he needed an adult to go with him. The only person he would talk was Glo Mitchell, the kitchen manager, who is a wonderful person.

“ In a district like ours, it’s a big business and we have to run it like a big business, but when you get right down to it, it’s a neat opportunity to make a real difference. It’s money well spent.”

Wordell’s job is to make sure children receive nutritious food, especially those who don’t get enough at home. His vision includes better food and more selection for every child.

“I believe that the most nutritious food is the food that’s eaten, and giving students a choice of food that appeals to them is the best way to get them to eat our food. Choice improves nutrition.”

Of the approximately 32,000 students in District 81, 15,000 qualify for free or reduced-cost meals. And expanded summer feeding program now serves increasing number of children when school is not in session.

The federal government began extending its food programs into the summer months in the early 1980s. Summer meals have been around since the early ‘80s, and in Spokane since the mid-‘80s. They were started as a city Parks Department project and soon became a part of the District 81’s summer school program.

However, not all schools in needy areas host summer school, a problem Wordell set out last year to resolve.

“The premise of the summer meals program is, and always has been, if there are needy kids who are hungry during the school year, they’re likely to also be hungry during the summer. So we opened up summer lunch programs at schools that have the need.

“We identified a school as a needy site if 50 percent or more of a school’s students qualify for free or reduced. We went from 62,000 summer meals a year-and-a-half ago to 99,000 last year. That’s a 63 percent increase.”

Beginning this summer, District 81 will team up with the Parks Department, which in the past hired a third-party contractor to supply meals. “We looked at each other and said `Hey, we’re both nonprofits; let’s work together.’ We’ve written an agreement so we will be providing the food for the 42,000 meals that will be served at the parks this summer.”

Any person under 18 in a needy neighborhood is eligible for the program.

In April, Wordell will launch a pilot elementary school feeding program at Moran Prairie School to test his theories about choice. “I feel our high school program is excellent. We offer nine or more entrees per day, but at the elementary level, we only offer one.”

At Moran Prairie, students will be given a wider selection of entrees and a la carte items. “We have to work out the cost-effectiveness of multi-entrees and see of they actually get kids to eat more.” If it works and Wordell entices more youngsters to eat more, the district will expand the program. For now, he works to give kids food they will eat.

“I eat school lunch every day, although some days I eat it out of the cooler, which isn’t the same. I eat three meals a week in the schools. I get in there and eat with the kids and we talk business: `What do you think of the Tater Tots? What do you think of the new milk packets?’ ”

When he’s done talking with the kids, he takes up a position near the garbage cans. “I watch the garbage to see what’s not being eaten so that we can get better about giving them what they want.”