Boston Public Faculties has achieved a “silver” rating for his or her college meal program after overhauling their meals sorts, sourcing and preparation in recent times, based on a report from a nationwide revenue launched Tuesday.
“Boston Public Schools is reimagining school meals by providing freshly prepared nutritious food that supports our students’ focus in the classroom while also ensuring it reflects the diverse cultures and communities of our students,” stated Superintendent Mary Skipper. “Earning Silver Status affirms the progress being made and that these efforts are having a meaningful impact on our school communities.”
From the 2019-20 college 12 months to 2023-24, BPS elevated from assembly one out of 5 targets outlined by the Heart for Good Meals Buying to hitting 4 out of 5.
The nationwide nonprofit manages the Good Meals Buying Program, a framework which assesses public establishments’ meals applications based mostly on how they assist native economies, environmental sustainability, a valued workforce, animal welfare, and diet. BPS’s preliminary evaluation was carried out for the 2019-2020 college 12 months and launched in 2023.
BPS’s Meals and Vitamin Service program, which serves over 8 million breakfast, lunch and summer season meals throughout 123 services a 12 months, confirmed progress in exceeding targets for diet — for each rooster merchandise raised with out routine antibiotic use and “Whole and Minimally-Processed foods” — and sourcing from household or cooperatively-owned companies positioned inside New England, based on the report.
“With a food budget of approximately $18 million, BPS’ Food and Nutrition Services is the largest school district purchaser of food in New England, allowing the City to improve the quality of school meals while also accelerating broader food system reform,” the Metropolis said in a launch Tuesday.
The district solely missed the goal for animal welfare, the report said. The district decreased the load of animal merchandise bought per meal by just one.8%, the report particulars, urging BPS to “explore ways to increase purchases of high animal welfare products or further reduce the total weight of animal products purchased.”
In a FAQ sheet launched in response, BPS officers stated they intention to give attention to “animal product reduction as a strategy.” The district urged growing their plant-based menu and exploring sourcing natural milk from an authorized humane dairy, which may very well be “financially sustainable” in the event that they change to bulk dispensers reasonably than particular person cartons.
BPS officers additionally addressed the report’s famous “many labor violations by BPS Food and Nutrition Services suppliers,” saying the examples are “more than tragic; they reflect the way the vast majority of our food system does business.”
The district famous that although “few options exist to give wholesale buyers, like BPS, an alternative that also meets its needs,” they’ve carried out labor violation outreach to high violators and intend to deal with the difficulty.
The rise in BPS’s meals service rating displays a broad shift throughout the district in recent times tied to the Good Meals Buying Program framework. BPS introduced initially of the 2025-26 college 12 months that 107 of the 123 college buildings are actually outfitted to cook dinner contemporary meals on web site and 96% of meals are being made in home.
Renovations to the BPS Central Kitchen facility in Dorchester will permit it to relaunch operation by “the end of 2025” and BPS to ship meals to the 16 services with out kitchen services or sufficient pupil demand to cook dinner meals on-site, based on the district.
“By bringing scratch cooking back to our schools and sourcing more nutritious, culturally diverse ingredients from local suppliers, we’re not only serving healthier meals — we’re also investing in our students, our workforce, and our local economy,” stated Eric Stevens, interim government director of BPS’s Meals and Vitamin Providers.
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