By Megan Burks and Brian Myers
One by one, students in Jennifer Garfinkel’s third grade class shuffled into seats around tables set with plates and cutlery. They’re the same classroom tables where students unpacked pencils and paper earlier in the day to work.
At noon, the work surfaces become dining tables with a little disinfectant spray and five place settings each. Lunch is then served family-style.
In the only school lunch program of its kind in San Diego, students at America’s Finest Charter School in City Heights shovel kid-sized portions of fresh pasta, stir-fry or vegetables onto their plates. They sit with their classmates as they would with siblings at home. The teacher rotates to the head of a different table each day.
“Not only am I able to sit with different kids and have conversations over a meal with them, but I walk around and I can hear them talking to each other,” Garfinkel said.
“They have a lot more trust in each other and they’re more comfortable with one another, so in a lesson they wont be as afraid to answer a question or make a mistake or volunteer,” she continued. “So, it’s translating into the classroom.”
Jan Perry, the school’s director, said she wanted lunchtime to be more peaceful and productive than what she’s seen at other schools. She recalled watching over rowdy lunch pavilions and finding kids eating in the bathroom to avoid the chaos.
Creating a comforting environment for lunch was especially important for Perry because of the school’s diversity. America’s Finest, located where El Cajon Boulevard meets Interstate-15, has attracted an equal mix of kids from the school’s immigrant neighborhood and more affluent north county communities.
“Local moms were saying, ‘The Americans are coming,’” Perry said. “They’re so used to it being the other way around.”
About 65 percent of the schools in City Heights are failing based on standardized test scores, so many families in the neighborhood have the option to enroll their children elsewhere. But innovative programs like the family-style lunch have attracted students from all backgrounds to America’s Finest.
Eating lunch in smaller, assigned groups could help bridge cultural gaps in such an economically and ethnically diverse student body. Perry said she hopes it will also help English-learners, who often stick together and speak their native languages in the hallways and cafeterias of other schools.
The strategy also aims to solve a problem common to schools in all communities—making sure everyone gets a nutritious lunch.
“Last year, the kids all brought their own lunches and some of the parents were really health conscious and had all organic food. And then some kids would bring, literally, Twinkies and chips,” said Garfinkel, who taught at Innovations Academy Charter School last year.
“This program is so different and so amazing, because we know they’re getting healthy food and it will sustain them for the rest of the day.”
The meals are prepared fresh each morning at Revolution Foods in Los Angeles. They’re then trucked down to San Diego and heated up on campus. Heather Wilson of Revolution Foods, which is affiliated with national grocer Whole Foods, said each meal contains less fat, sugar and salt than typical school lunches.
Perry and others said they feel good knowing they can provide at least one healthy meal for students. In City Heights, where incomes are low and fast food restaurants and convenience stores are prevalent, they can’t always be sure students are getting good meals at home.
Mariah Cousins, a third-grader in Garfinkel’s class, said the chicken alfredo America’s Finest served up was almost as good as her grandmother’s. She said she liked the healthy options.
But she also said she likes to get candy from the gas station next door. The business gave the students vouchers for candy, soda and hot chocolate. A Jack in the Box and taco shop are just a few blocks away, across the street from another elementary school.
“It’s a blessing to have organic food here, not processed,” said Halima Tinson, a school assistant who added that eating healthy in City Heights can be tough.