Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Michael P. Callagy, County Manager
Subject: Use of District-Discretionary Measure K Funds - Supervisorial District One
RECOMMENDATION:
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Measure K: Adopt a resolution authorizing a one-time grant of district-discretionary Measure K funds, not to exceed $53,350, to Second Harvest Food Bank to expand meal service programs for students in the South San Francisco and Millbrae school districts, and authorizing the County Manager, or his designee, to execute the grant agreement.
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BACKGROUND:
Measure K is the half-cent general sales tax initially approved by San Mateo County voters in November 2012 and extended in November 2016 for a total of thirty years.
On February 12, 2019, the Board of Supervisors (Board) held a study session on Measure K expenditures and anticipated revenue for fiscal years (FY) 2019-21. The Board-appointed Measure K sub-committee, consisting of Supervisor Pine and Supervisor Canepa, convened the study session to, among other things, work with staff to facilitate the Board’s development of Measure K priorities and continuing initiatives for FY 2019-21. The Board approved $3.75 million in one-time loans or grants each fiscal year for FY 2019-21, divided equally among the five supervisorial districts, for district-discretionary needs and projects. District One has submitted a request to use its district-discretionary Measure K funds as shown below and described in the Project Summary section of this memorandum:
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District/Project |
Amount |
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District 1 (Supervisor Dave Pine) - Second Harvest Food Bank: Purchase of food service equipment for Millbrae School District and South San Francisco School District to expand meal service programs |
$53,350 |
This item is consistent with the criteria for district-discretionary Measure K funds approved by the Board in December 2018.
PROJECT SUMMARY:
This is a request to authorize a grant to Second Harvest Food Bank (Second Harvest), and resulting grant agreement, in an amount not to exceed $53,350 to provide food service equipment to South San Francisco and Millbrae school districts in order to expand the capacity of those districts to serve meals for their students at certain public schools. The County Manager’s Office will administer the proposed grant agreement.
District-discretionary Measure K funding for Second Harvest has previously been provided as listed below:
• One-time grant on June 25, 2019 of District 2 district-discretionary funding of $80,000 to provide breakfast and lunch at four schools in the San Mateo-Foster City School District.
Second Harvest partners with school districts in San Mateo County to leverage federal dollars for school meals and to maximize participation in breakfast and lunch at school. Increasing participation by students involves many different strategies - ensuring that meals are served at times that work for students (like breakfast after the bell), creating lunch serving situations that move quickly, providing appropriate cultural foods, and making nutritious fruits and vegetables more easily accessible.
When schools are able to take advantage of free-and-reduced-price meals (FRPM), the meals themselves are paid for with federal dollars. This is an influx of federal monies into our communities and Second Harvest works hard to ensure that all schools are taking full advantage of the programs offered by providing technical assistance, assisting in securing infrastructure funding, and through promotion of school meals.
The Millbrae School District (MSD) and South San Francisco Unified School District (SSFUSD) have high proportions of children qualifying for FRPM. To qualify for free meals, a family must have income below 135% of the federal poverty line (FPL); to qualify for reduced price meals, the family must have income less than 185% of the FPL.
South San Francisco Unified School District
For fiscal year 2018/19, 41% of students enrolled at SSFUSD qualified for FRPM, on average. Of the district’s nine elementary schools, five schools have 50-75% of students qualifying for FRPM. South San Francisco High, with over 1,300 students, has a FRPM population of 44% and Baden Continuation High, though small, has a 50% FRPM population.
SSFUSD would benefit from the provision of equipment for the following nutrition services initiatives:
1. Expand the breakfast program
SSFUSD currently offers breakfast in 8 schools (out of 14) and would like to add a breakfast program in one elementary school (second chance breakfast) and one middle school (before school). A refrigerator is needed in each school to store the breakfast food. The objective is to serve 100-200 additional breakfasts every day.
2. Divert waste from landfills
SSFUSD is working on reducing the use of plastic and non-compostable packages and utensils. SSFUSD plans to implement salad bars in 8 elementary schools (one elementary school has one already), which will eliminate the need to pack vegetables. SSFUSD needs 8 low salad bars (more appropriate for younger students) to fulfill this objective.
According to applicable health directives, perishable foods placed on the share tables cannot be brought back to the kitchen at the end of meal service if it they are not kept at the appropriate temperature. Currently SSFUSD must toss these foods; mainly milk cartons, bagged/packed salads, baby carrots, bagged cut fruit, and yogurt. Seventy ice blankets would allow SSFUSD to keep perishable foods at the appropriate temperature, such that food remaining at the end of meal service would be brought back to the kitchen and reused the following day. The estimated number of milk cartons that would be diverted from the landfill is 350-400 per day, or 63,000 to 72,000 cartons per year.
SSFUSD uses 480,000 sporkits per year. A sporkit includes a plastic spork and a napkin wrapped in plastic. SSFUSD is in the process of implementing napkin dispensers in all schools so that students who do not need a spork only use a napkin. The second phase will be to install compostable utensil dispensers when compostable utensils become affordable. In the meantime, SSFUSD aims to pilot the use of reusable utensils at Westborough Middle School. Students would be given a fork and a spoon and would be responsible for taking the items home, washing them and bringing them back (kitchens are not equipped with dishwashers). SSFUSD requires 300 reusable forks and 300 reusable knives.
3. Increase lunch student participation at the two high schools
One of the new items SSFUSD would like to offer is a ramen bar. This would require 4 Cambro 4.75-gallon containers and 2 salad bars (regular height). The salad bar would also be used to offer other “bar” type lunches such as a pasta bar or a taco bar. A 5-10% increase in lunch participation is expected on days the ramen bar will be offered.
4. Increase student’s consumption of fruit and vegetables
In elementary schools, the choice of vegetables is very limited and presented in packed containers or individual bags, which is not very appealing. The salad bars would allow presentation of a wider variety of vegetables in a more enticing way (colors and nice containers).
SSFUSD would also like to use wicker baskets on stands to present the daily choice of fruit. Each stand holds 4 baskets and allows for signage. One stand would be placed at each serving lines in all schools.
Millbrae School District
In fiscal year 2018/19, approximately 26% of MSD students qualified FRPM district-wide, though Lomita Park School is almost 58% FRPM. MSD has 2,392 children enrolled in the district.
Second Harvest proposes to provide new equipment, including windows at Taylor Middle School and scanners at all MSD schools. The proposed equipment would help make the lunch lines move more efficiently and allow the students to get through the lunch lines more quickly. Many students choose not to eat lunch due the long lines in the cafeterias, which prevents them from accessing the nutrition that is important to their learning and development. MSD estimates that using scanners at all schools would result in approximately 95,000 additional meals served in MSD schools over the course of the year.
The funding would also allow the purchase of commercial rice cookers (and associated electrical changes) to ensure that students have access to healthy, familiar foods match their cultural tastes and provide the nutrition they need. This will increase student participation in federal meals programs as the food will be more enticing and palatable to the entire student body.
Proposed Budget
SSFUSD: Funding for SSFUSD support the purchase of the following equipment.
2 single door refrigerators $ 8,000
8 youth salad bars (H 451/2’) $15,000
70 ice blankets $ 500
600 reusable forks and spoons $ 900
4 cambro 4.75 gallons containers $ 450
2 salad bars (standard height) $ 3,500
19 wicker basket stands $ 4,000
Total Funding for SSFUSD $ 32,350
MSD: Funding for MSD would support the purchase of the following equipment.
Bio Metric Scanners: $6,000
($5,000 purchase price plus $1,000 for a two-year license.)
Rice Cookers and electrical update: $12,000
($2,000 for 5 rice cookers, with tax and shipping. $10,000 to update school electrical for commercial rice cookers.)
Updated serving windows at Taylor Middle School lunch lines: $3,000
Total Funding for MSD: $21,000
Total Measure K Request: Not to Exceed $53,350
The release of funds will be contingent on the execution of an agreement providing for the County’s confirmation of the expenditure of funds for the purposes stated herein. The County will disburse the funds to the following organization for the purposes described above:
Tracy Weatherby, VP of Community Engagement & Policy
Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties
1051 Bing Street
San Carlos, CA 94070
650-255-6009
PERFORMANCE MEASURE:
|
Purchase of equipment listed above |
First quarter 2020 |
Complete |
County Counsel has reviewed and approved the resolution as to form.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There are sufficient Measure K funds for this specific FY 2019-20 Measure K request. These funds are budgeted in the Non-Departmental Services FY 2019-20 Adopted Budget.