The biggest problem is most people hate change whether good or bad and will resist it. This resistance to change in the school meal programs stems from the fact they use the cheapest of ingredients to feed the students. While I agree they should keep the budget as low as possible and stick with it going with the absolute cheapest crap doesn't cut it. The food is generally filled with saturated fats and simple sugars while being low in essential nutrients. In other words the school systems are afraid they will be told they must change the entire menu.
The real question is which is more economical, using prepackaged foods, having it made from scratch from a central kitchen then having it distributed to the schools, or having it made from scratch at every school? Then is the option going to be healthy? The problem lies in the fact there are so many variables involved. These variables may include but are not limited to:
-Quality and availability of food/ingredients to make the food
-Kitchen equipment
-Finding/training qualified help
-Staff to cook the food
-Transportation of food
-storage of ingredients
-utilities
-space needed to prepare the food
And I imagine that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. In order to make necessary changes a plan needs to drawn up looking at the costs involved in those and other variables. What makes matters even worse is what works for one school district may not work for another. Yes it is going to be hard work, but doing the same things is not going to bring necessary changes for sure. If they do go with making the food from scratch it will be better to use high quality ingredients. For example less is lost with better cuts of ground beef. Ground beef with 20% fat will cost more in the long run than beef with 10% fat.
As far as monetary costs one way to cut the budget is if an area has a college or university that offers a culinary arts program offer an internship program to the students of the colleges or universities. This will save the school district money while offering students a chance to earn some experience for their career field. Again this will not work everywhere. Change is hard and that is why people are so resistant to change, and why a lot of people resist Jamie Oliver.
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