Julia Bauscher

And that's another issue for districts across the country that don't

don't have the ability to participate in the community eligibility program because they have a very low number of students that are eligible for free or reduced meals.

The charges just soar.

So again, school meals for everybody at no cost would be the greatest thing ever.

First of all, controlling food costs, supply costs was always a challenge.

It's something that you always have to keep your eye on.

I think anybody that worked for me would tell you I was a numbers person.

I was constantly looking at the performance numbers and making changes based on that performance.

That is one.

This problem has eased a little bit lately, but

enough labor to produce school meals, especially as we move more towards scratch cooking.

You don't have a lot of people that grew up learning how to cook.

They didn't cook alongside their moms in the kitchen.

And school kitchens don't have the equipment anymore to produce some of these meals.

I know as we transitioned to the central kitchen, we removed a lot of the kettles and bain maries and

equipment like that that had mixers that were utilized in the schools because we made room for bigger serving lines or power soap sinks, other equipment because we were doing so much of the food production at the central kitchen.

Again, and you've got a lot of districts across the country where the school kitchen is a closet.

You know, the central kitchen

delivers meals to the school, they're served that day or the next day, and they don't have any equipment at all.

So that is a challenge.