Features

The Berkeley public schools could lose $60,000 in nutrition money in the new school year if the state legislature cuts funding from the California Fresh Start Program this month. 

Initiated in 2006 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fresh Start provides 10 cents for every school breakfast served that contains fresh fruits and vegetables. 

The program—which offers $18.2 million from the state general fund—aims at reducing obesity and diabetes among children. 

Although the governor approved $11.1 million in funds to take Fresh Start into the next school year, legislators are proposing to remove that amount to help cover a $366 million funding gap in the state budget. 

The proposal has perturbed parent groups, fresh food advocates and in particular Ann Cooper, Berkeley’s “Renegade Lunch Lady,” who has stepped up to the rescue. 

“There’s nothing the school district can do by itself,” Cooper, who heads Berkeley Unified’s school lunch program, told the Planet during a phone interview Wednesday, “but I am trying really hard to make the Legislature leave the money in the budget.” 

Cooper, a vociferous advocate of “eating fresh,” has been busy making calls to the Legislature and contacting the media to lobby against the budget cuts. 

Her biggest fear is that kids will be deprived of their fresh kiwis, strawberries and pears every morning if the cuts get approved. 

“We are expecting to hear something any time now, maybe even this week,” she said. 

“I am hoping for the best as I really don’t want to lose $60,000 worth of food,” she said. “That’s over 300,000 pieces of fruit.” 

School board vice president John Selawsky said that the school district was lobbying hard to keep the funding alive. 

“It’s horrible that the cuts have been proposed,” he told the Planet. “There’s nothing that gives you vitamins and minerals more than fresh fruit. We have spoken with our state assemblyperson and our state senator about this. People have also contacted the governor. This doesn’t just affect the school district, but also parents and providers of fresh fruit. The program is essential if we are going to have good nutritious food for our children. The governor has been touting fresh fruit and vegetables for students as one of his issues. And now they are going ahead and doing this. It’s like saying something and doing something completely different.” 

According to Cooper, the governor’s May 11 budget revision had a technical error which removed $366 million from education funding. 

“As a result, they are trying to balance the governor’s budget by doing this,” she said. 

Phyllis Bramson-Paul, director of nutrition services for the state Department of Education, told the Planet that it was possible that the program would be renewed. 

“It’s been a pilot program running for a year and preliminary evidence from Center for Weight and Health at the University of California, Berkeley has shown that it has met all its goals,” she said. 

“One of the goals was to promote fresh fruit and vegetables. Before the program, 26 percent of school breakfasts contained a serving of a fresh fruit or vegetable. After it was started, this saw an increase of 96 percent. Also, a huge portion of fruits purchased by the school districts were California grown. The program not only supports nutrition but also California agriculture.” 

Seventy-five percent of school breakfasts in the state make use of Fresh Start. This includes the Oakland Unified School District, the San Francisco Unified School District and the Alameda City Unified School District. 

Among California’s fifth, seventh and ninth graders, 28 percent were overweight in 2004. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified “eating additional servings of fresh fruits and vegetables as one of the four most effective obesity prevention strategies.” 

Selawsky said that he was hopeful that the legislature would figure out a way to reinstate the funds. 

“Until then, we will continue to lobby,” he said. “If they do go on to cut the funding entirely, then we would have to figure out our own source of funding our children’s fresh fruit and vegetables.”