Kristy Obbink is Portland Public Schools (PPS) Nutrition Services Director. She and her staff are responsible for serving approximately 21,000 lunches and 15,000 breakfasts each school day. Kristy has been trying to make changes to the school menu ever since she attended a workshop a few years ago titled “Rethinking School Lunch.”

Kristy was admittedly defensive when she sat down in the audience; she already had her hands full maintaining the status quo. But by the time the lecture was over, thanks in large part to compelling information and the supportive environment engendered that evening, Kristy was inspired to do what she could. And indeed, she and her staff have done a lot.

A la carte sales—grab-and-go items that are not full meals, such as cookies, bags of chips, Pizza Hut pizza, and cups of noodles—were eliminated from middle and high schools in 2005. Soft drinks went in 2006 when everything but water, 100% juice, and milk was banned from high schools. At the same time, the snacks in all vending machines were required to follow strict nutritional standards, similar to those made state law by the recently passed “Junk Food Bill.” The district also stopped catering administrative meetings and school functions. Eliminating these peripheral programs allowed the district to narrow its focus to the food on students’ plates.

But while Kristy’s focus narrowed to the meal on the plate, her sense of how she views that meal has expanded. “Increasingly, we’re taking a more holistic approach to nutrition. PPS recognizes its role in informing children about the impact of their food choices not just on their personal health, but also on the health of the broader community. That means we’re incorporating social and environmental dimensions into our definition of healthy, nutritious foods.”

Thanks to the efforts of many individuals, in particular Linda Colwell, an eight-year veteran “farm-to-school” advocate, the district had an opportunity to witness that expanded definition come to life at Abernethy Elementary in Southeast Portland during the 2005-2006 school year. Lessons about food, history, ecology, nutrition, and more were introduced in the indoor “Garden of Wonders” classroom and then reinforced in both the outdoor garden as well as the school cafeteria, where meals were made from scratch every day. The integrated program at Abernethy continues today and the cafeteria component serves as the inspiration for district-wide changes, such as the Harvest of the Month program that this year will bring farm-direct products to every school in the district at least twice a month.

Tested on a smaller scale for the first time last school year, Harvest of the Month was an immediate hit. “We ended last school year by serving fresh strawberries from Unger Farms. Some kids had literally never eaten a fresh strawberry before. I just couldn’t believe it. We served them their first Oregon strawberry!” says Kristy.

In addition to introducing students to new, healthy foods, Harvest of the Month also enables PPS to support local farmers. Sam Pollock is lined up this year to kick off Harvest of the Month in September with his fresh Hermiston watermelons. The relationship with PPS is a perfect fit for Pollock. Most years, his watermelon sales die off precipitously right after Labor Day, the official end of summer and start of school. But PPS will buy upwards of 40,000 pounds of watermelon this year, a kid favorite.

“This is exactly what I want to do more. I want to be a good community partner. I want to support the farms and the food businesses in my area while offering the kids the freshest food possible,” enthuses Kristy.

Kristy and her staff routinely debate what an ideal school menu could look like and how quickly they can get there. The list of long-range goals is impressive. For example, of the food served: 50% would be sourced locally; 100% would be processed or manufactured within the region; 100% could be traced back to its source; 50% would be “freshly prepared,” minimizing the amount of additives necessary; and none would contain transfat or high-fructose corn syrup.

Ambitious goals like these have led the district to explore new partnerships with local food manufacturers. But it’s tough. Local manufacturers have to be cost-competitive and students have to be willing to try new foods. Imagine being the locally-made breakfast bar competing with a name-brand kid favorite like Cheerios or Cap’n Crunch.

One morning I got an email from Kristy. She was frustrated because she was trying to introduce a new low-fat, high-fiber breakfast bar made to her specifications by a local manufacturer. She’d tested the new bar in select schools and many of the kids turned up their noses; they wouldn’t even put it on their tray. Its competition was a new fortified, sweetened bar from a national manufacturer. The brand-name bar had colored specs on the outside and fancy packaging. The high-fiber bar was in a see-through pouch and really looked the part. It didn’t stand a chance.

On days when PPS served the brand-name breakfast bar, participation rates increased. On days when they served “the turd,” as Kristy described the locally made breakfast bar, sales fell sharply. That the highly processed bar brought increased sales is not an insignificant detail. Participation rates are the lifeblood of school cafeterias. Just like any other food business, costs include overhead, labor, raw products and ingredients, food waste, and marketing, among many others. But very much unlike other food businesses, school cafeterias operate with mere pennies.

For Kristy and her team to revamp school lunch, she needs community support and, most importantly, she needs parent participation. When asked what she could do if lunch sales increased by 10% overall, Kristy easily rambles off a list. “We’d be able to put higher quality food on the plate.” She continues, “We’d take more chances, experiment more. For example, maybe we could serve a safe entrée, like pizza, and then alongside it serve a new entrée that kids would need time to get used to.”

With more resources at her disposal, she’d send her staff into the classroom to talk to kids about upcoming new menu items. “We’d love to be able to connect with kids in a different way—at their level—not just during the craziness of lunch time when there is pressure to keep the line moving. We could go from being food dispensers to food educators!” Once the brainstorming started, it was hard to turn off the spigot. “Imagine if we could remodel some of the eating spaces—make them bright and cheerful.”

As for remodeling antiquated cafeterias, I suspect we’re going to need more than a 10% increase in lunchroom participation, but I applaud Kristy for her enthusiasm. It’s this attitude that made it possible for the district to take risks this school year. As but one example, many of the baked bread items served in Portland Public Schools—the hamburger buns, the sandwich bread, the rolls—are now made with Shepherd’s Grain flour, which comes from a co-op of family farmers in eastern Washington and Oregon.

Shepherd’s Grain founders Karl Kupers and Fred Fleming can talk for hours about their sustainable farming practices. Grown men both, they nearly tear up when describing the joy of knowing that Shepherd’s Grain flour isn’t loaded onto barges, destined for the commodity market and far-flung foreign shores. And the breakfast bar that finally won out in PPS cafeterias? It’s made locally by Fairlight Bakery with Shepherd’s Grain flour and an Oregon berry filling.

Small victories like these assure Kristy that change is possible. But she’s definitely impatient; she wants more change and she wants it faster. Likely, many parents do, too.

Last year, supportive phone calls and parent emails poured in after the first few Harvest of the Month items were featured. Kristy loved the feedback. She imagines the day in front of the school board, or the state legislature, when she gets to show a chart with spikes in participation on days that she served Columbia Gorge farm-fresh apples, or introduced a new pasta marinara main entrée made by a regional manufacturer. But she reminds me that phone calls and emails aren’t measurable. Participation is measurable. “Participation is our barometer,” she says.

“Vote with your food dollar” is an oft-repeated phrase, the theory being that the food market responds to consumer demand and classic market signals. This school year, I’m going to help my daughter Zoe vote with her lunch money. She’ll be a data point on Kristy’s chart. Though come to think of it, there will probably be two of those data points the day the Ungers’ strawberries are served. I think I’ll volunteer in the lunchroom that day.

Deborah Kane is the Vice President of Food & Farms at Ecotrust, a WK Kellogg Foundation Food & Society Policy Fellow, the publisher of Edible Portland, and the proud mom of Zoe and Owen Kane.