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Q&A
Update on cafeteria enhancement projects and funding
6:22:39
ยท
4 min
Council Member Rita Joseph discusses the progress and funding of cafeteria enhancement projects with DOE and SCA representatives. The conversation covers the number of completed and planned upgrades, as well as the impact on students.
- $150 million set aside for 160 new cafeteria upgrades
- 254 cafeterias completed to date, with 208 middle and high school sites still targeted
- Discussion of potential expansion to elementary schools
- Emphasis on the high return on investment and positive impact on student nutrition
Rita Joseph
6:22:39
Cafeteria enhancements, one of our food advocates if they're here, that's one of their favorite topics, cafeteria enhancements.
6:22:48
In the twenty twenty, twenty twenty four capital plan, are you continuing this popular program in the current plan?
Nina Kubota
6:22:55
Absolutely, a hundred and $50,000,000 set aside for this program.
Rita Joseph
6:22:59
How many total cafeterias have been upgraded to date and how many remains to be upgraded?
6:23:04
Kevin?
Kevin Moran
6:23:05
Yeah.
6:23:06
Again, thank you for the funding for this program.
6:23:08
This is widely successful amongst our students and staff, so we're very much appreciated of the council's advocacy and our extended advocate community.
6:23:16
The $150,000,000 will get us 160 new cafeterias.
6:23:22
And that may vary over time, the number, because if you do a Kennedy that we just wrapped up last year, there's three cafeterias versus a smaller school.
6:23:29
But prior to 2020, in 2016 we started out with a very small cohort.
6:23:35
It was 45 cafeterias that were constructed in the CEE model.
6:23:39
To date, we've completed two fifty four.
6:23:44
That leaves us with a balance of about two zero eight middle school and high school sites that are targeted for this.
6:23:51
And in addition, we have 76 sites that we would likely need an expense solution for.
6:23:58
And so we hope to advance to the elementary schools in this current plan with that one sixty.
Rita Joseph
6:24:02
That's my vision.
Kevin Moran
6:24:03
We do have one pilot, k two thirty in Brooklyn.
6:24:07
If you want to visit, it's really cool.
6:24:09
The kids love it.
6:24:11
We're
UNKNOWN
6:24:11
really excited It's 22.
Kevin Moran
6:24:13
15.
6:24:13
15 to 30.
Rita Joseph
6:24:14
Oh, yes.
Emma Vadehra
6:24:15
But I will just say after Kevin ended on the positive note, the current funding in the capital plan this is our entire dynamic the current funding in the capital plan will not complete all of our middle and high school yet.
6:24:28
It'll get us almost all the way but not quite all the way there.
6:24:32
And I think Cora mentioned this earlier, but this is something else that's been impacted by the OMB directive reinterpretation.
6:24:38
So we had thought we'd get there, now we'll get another 160, but we'll have a few left at the end.
Rita Joseph
6:24:42
Okay.
6:24:43
So additional funding, that's been our conversation today, would get us to the number that we need to be.
6:24:49
And then how much would you need to go down to elementary schools?
Emma Vadehra
6:24:54
We don't have a full estimate of that yet, but as Kevin said, the pilot we're going to do is going to help us get a sense of a, what that looks like and then we can start to think about cost.
Rita Joseph
6:25:02
And then we'll be able to look what the slide looks like across the city in elementary school.
6:25:06
I think it would be a game changer.
6:25:07
I went to see an elementary school the other day.
6:25:09
The cafeteria was atrocious.
6:25:11
It needs it really needs it could use that help.
6:25:14
And it encourages our students to eat more lunch.
6:25:17
Right?
6:25:17
So that's the purpose of it.
Daniel Weisberg
6:25:19
We're with you, Chair, on that a %.
6:25:21
One thing to say, it's not that we're doing no work in elementary cafeterias because we do have some that we're doing on a one off basis in addition to the pilot Kevin's talking about.
6:25:33
But I noticed this hearing's mostly about dollars and cents.
6:25:37
This is one of the highest return on investment programs we have.
6:25:42
We are just as enthusiastic as the students who are here and as you are, Chair, about this.
6:25:48
For something I'll probably get the numbers somewhat wrong, but I think the average cost of the cafeteria enhancement is somewhere around it's under a million dollars per site.
6:25:57
And all you've to do is look on the faces of the kids when they see, come into the cafeteria and see what it looks like after the renovation to know that it's worth it.
6:26:07
And you're 100% right, Chair.
6:26:09
It improves and increases the amount of food that kids eat.
6:26:16
Healthy food that they eat.
6:26:17
Some of the grab and go programs that we see in some of the high schools are outstanding.
6:26:22
As good, if not better, than the experience you get going to a high end, fast casual restaurant.
6:26:30
So we're with you.
6:26:32
Again, this is one of these areas that if we had the funding, we would go as aggressively as we possibly could because we can see and we hear from the students and we hear from staff and parents as well that this is one of the really effective things we can do to improve the learning environment for kids.