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Shepard High School, Cafeteria Expansion - Project Details

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SchoolDesigns.com is an online resource for school architecture and construction information. The site features a searchable database of school and university data, plans and photos along with school news, construction tips and a directory of educational design architects.

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Education world

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With a more relaxed atmosphere, food, and the opportunity to socialize, it may be one of the students' favorite places, but the school cafeteria can be just the opposite for staff and administrators. How can you make the lunchroom an "orderly" place where you and your students love to be? Included: Administrators share their best tips for improving atmosphere, behavior, and manners in the lunchroom.

"I loved being in the lunchroom, interacting with students, staff, and parents," recalls retired principal Ann Porter. "It was a chance for me -- the principal -- to be a coach and teacher and have the students see me as a real person. It was rewarding to see supervisors and students learning and making the lunchroom a better place for all."

As many administrators know, the school cafeteria isn't always a place to love or be loved. Poor manners, loud voices, and a lack of cooperation and respect can make this "downtime" for students a "stress time" for staff members. Porter encountered all of those difficulties when she arrived at Lewis & Clark School in Grand Forks, North Dakota. One of the first problems she noted was that students called lunchroom supervisors by their first names.

Is your school cafeteria a place where you love to spend time, or is it one of your worst nightmares brought to life? If you have a smooth-running cafeteria, what tips do you have for principals who have just about given up on bringing order to their lunchrooms? Click here to join the conversation.

"As my husband says about Casual Fridays, 'Casual dress, casual attitude!'" observed Porter. "Students had the attitude that if they could call the adults who were to supervise them by their first names, they could treat them casually. Using nametags was the first attempt at getting the students to perceive the supervisors in a new and different light. Wearing the nametags was also an attempt to help the supervisors perceive themselves as an important part of the staff with an important role in the learning that took place in the school."

In addition, the supervisors were given aprons that made them easy to find and recognize. The aprons had large pockets that held extra napkins and silverware. Porter even donned an apron when she was in the lunchroom to illustrate that she was also a part of the team.

The most important change she made, however, focused on the atmosphere of the cafeteria. Some students didn't have the opportunity to sit down and share a meal with their families each day, and Porter resolved that they would have that experience at school. To foster that "family atmosphere," she modified the lunch schedule so that students of different ages ate together.

"In contrast to what many schools do, I believe that one of the most helpful things to do in the lunchroom is to have different grade levels eating at the same time," said Porter. "That is the number one way to promote family atmosphere. Older students can help younger students learn the routines of the lunchroom and do a variety of other jobs."

Younger students encounter new routines and new expectations in the lunchroom. In Porter's school, that includes how to stand in line, how to make choices while in the line, memorizing a lunch number, where to sit, how to ask for help, how to return a lunch tray, how to leave the lunchroom, and more. That is a lot to master on the first day of school, so, just as older members of a family guide younger ones, older students in the cafeteria serve as examples for younger students.

"Families are not made up of people of all one age, but different ages, different abilities, and different levels of knowledge," Porter told Education World. "The older more experienced members of the family help to model and teach the younger ones the expectations for behavior and how things are done in the family or school."

"KIDS' PLACE" CAFETERIA

At nearby Ben Franklin Elementary School in Grand Forks, principal Beth S. Randklev promotes a "restaurant" atmosphere in the cafeteria.

Randklev believes that school is not about practicing for life. School is life, she explained. "We need to help students develop manners and skills that transfer into situations outside of school. That is what is expected in public with families and it should also be expected here."

Randklev and her staff talked about what makes people want to go to a restaurant -- appearance, friendly service, and other reasons. That was the kind of atmosphere that Randklev and her staff wanted to create.

The first step in the cafeteria's transformation was selecting a new name. A contest was held, and "Kids' Place" was the winning title. Parents helped the cafeteria to live up to its name with new dcor. A bright stripe of yellow was added all around the room, and the students made handprints in primary colors on this "border." "Kids' Place" was stenciled in large letters on one wall and a striped awning was added to the windows and over the serving area. On a cinder block wall outside, two parents painted a scene of "looking inside" the restaurant. Workers were given handmade bright aprons to complete the look.

An adjoining smaller lunchroom was named "The Franklin Stove," after the school's namesake. It is decorated with a large painted fireplace and Franklin stove insert, a mural of Independence Hall, and a bust of Ben Franklin. Parents are invited to join students for lunch or breakfast. The cafeteria has a buffet-style serving line with "payment" in a till. Servers greet their "customers," and Randklev thanks each student who has an adult in tow for bringing in more "business." Following breakfast, students may borrow activities from a game shelf to pass the time before school begins.

"We teach students about eating by using the ideas of how you behave in a restaurant, and we try to treat them like customers," Randklev stated. "Our rules read like they might in a restaurant: Please stay seated. Eat only the food on your plate. Enjoy your table partners in pleasant conversation"

Last year, the school began a full-time all-day kindergarten program. Having both kindergartners and first graders eating lunch for would greatly slow the cafeteria service, so the school implemented a "buddy system." Every fifth grade class was scheduled to eat with a kindergarten class, and fourth grade classes were paired with first grade groups.

"The teachers of those two mixed-age groups got together and assigned a buddy for each student," said Randklev. "At the beginning of the year, the older buddy class went to the room of the younger buddy class, walked the students to lunch, helped them through the line, helped punch in their numbers, and sat with them. With the older students helping and teaching the younger students, the behavior of both groups was excellent. The kitchen continued to run on schedule, and our students loved it."

Proof that the program was working came just a couple of months later when the students were given the option of dropping the program or changing "buddies." The students voted overwhelmingly to maintain the program and keep their original buddies. The older students continued to sit at a table with three other friends of their age and their younger buddies.

"I have been especially surprised at the overall improved atmosphere with the buddies, especially the behavior of the older students," reported Randklev. "When students are asked to help and the work is meaningful -- we really did need their help -- and when they are treated like they can handle the responsibility, they really rise to the occasion."

STUDENT QUANTITY AND FOOD QUALITY

In Whitefish, Montana, garbage left on the playground of Central School led its principal, Kim Anderson, to evaluate the atmosphere of his school's cafeteria and its fare.

"We realized that the candy wrappers were from items being sold from the a la carte part of our lunch program," said Anderson. "From there we started drawing some comparisons as far as behavior in the morning versus the afternoon. We found that behavior concerns rose dramatically in the afternoon and concluded that we were contributing to that because of the junk we were providing."

Anderson invited the PTA, student council, and staff to offer suggestions for ways to improve the lunchroom environment as a whole. First, changes were made to the lunch schedule. Each grade was given its own recess period of 23 minutes, followed by 22 minutes for lunch. Prior to this, students were rushing through their meals and racing to the playground.

"Because of the reduced numbers in the cafeteria, some behavioral issues have taken care of themselves," explained Anderson. "One of the ideas of the students is that we offer more options for them. They have asked for and received microwaves to warm food from home and hot water dispensers for hot soups. We have replaced pop machines with juice and bottled-water machines. Candy vending machines have been replaced with a refrigerated vending machine that vends only healthier snacks such as string cheese, yogurt, milk, peanuts, granola bars, crackers, and fruit."

The healthier food offerings and defined playground and eating times have become a way of life at the school. There have been few complaints from students and none from parents -- even after four years. Beyond improved behavior in the lunchroom, Anderson has noted a drop in afternoon referrals to the office by 200 percent.

"Administrators need to realize that we are compromising the health of our students in the name of making a few dollars from pop and candy vending machines," Anderson stated. "Be patient, stay the course, and you will be amazed what can happen. We have truly not lost any money from our changes."

When Ann Porter first took the helm of Lewis & Clark School, staff members spoke repeatedly about the need to increase the level of respect shown by the students, especially in the cafeteria. How did she do it, and how can you?

Mix Ages
"The number one tool for encouraging better behavior in the cafeteria, in my opinion, is to have children of different ages eat at the same time," says Porter. "Older students can be role models and have more responsibilities such as serving food, wiping tables, and teaching manners. As the young ones learn, they can look forward to more responsibilities in the years ahead."

Hold Special Events
Porter organized "Dress-Up Days" -- complete with favors -- around holiday themes like Christmas and Valentine's Day. Students and staff members wore their best clothes -- the custodian even wore a tuxedo! The events were opportunities for lunchroom staff to bond and plan together and for teachers to prepare the students and review good manners. "Special events create memories and become traditions," she suggests. "Traditions are looked forward to and create bonds between those participating."

Work Together
Getting cafeteria workers to work together is at the core of improving the atmosphere of a lunchroom. Porter advises that weekly (and then monthly) meetings are a good start. Emphasize teamwork, and give the staff the chance to share what is happening in the cafeteria. Take suggestions, and let staff members try new approaches. "They must take ownership for what happens in the lunchroom," adds Porter. "An administrator can't be there all of the time, and they will have to deal with many issues. They must feel confident and know that the administrator trusts them and will back them up."

The idea for this article originated in Best Practices of Award-Winning Elementary Principals, a book by Sandra Harris. Harris, an Education World Administrator's Desk columnist, is also author of BRAVO PRINCIPAL!

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Bring "Order" to the Cafeteria | Education World

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With a more relaxed atmosphere, food, and the opportunity to socialize, it may be one of the students' favorite places, but the school cafeteria can be just the opposite for staff and administrators. How can you make the lunchroom an "orderly" place where you and your students love to be?

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School is almost back in session, and that means early-morning bus rides, after-school programs, and, of course, the dreaded lunchroom. Many kids think cafeteria food is just plain gross, some find the smaller portions of processed foods less than filling, and others simply don't get enough nutrients from fries and milk. Regardless of what your child thinks of cafeteria food, we're here to share a few tips so you can help them survive lunchtime at school.
Tips to Help Your Kids Survive the School Cafeteria
Kids like new things and changing things up. To keep things fresh, start a once-a-month lunchbox club with the other parents in your kid's class. Another great way to mix things up is by encouraging your child to get involved. Kids love to feel independent - one day a week, have him make his own lunch. It gives him bragging rights at his lunch table and makes him feel like a big kid.

If you need a way to make sure your child gets enough nutrients, prepare homemade granola bars for her dessert, or give her fresh fruits with homemade fruit dip. These alternatives to a store-bought bar contain far less sugar.

Here are a few other tips to help your child survive the school cafeteria this year.
Desk and Dine: Pizza Party Edition
Every kid loves pizza, so partner with other parents for a monthly pizza party for the little ones. Create a pizza party pool and let the kids dine at their desks while you socialize with other moms and dads.
Leftovers for Lunch
There's nothing like having a homemade dinner for lunch the next day. Remember, many kids don't have access to a microwave at school, so make it something that is as good cold as it warm.
Click here for more cafeteria tips.

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Tips to Help Your Kids Survive the School Cafeteria

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School is almost back in session, and that means early-morning bus rides, after-school programs, and, of course, the dreaded lunchroom. Many kids think cafeteria food is just plain gross, some find the smaller portions of processed foods less than filling, and others simply don't get enough nutrients from fries and milk.

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Are we really preparing our students for the job market or chasing a dream? Education World explores.

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best school

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Seattle has always been a progressive town for food, so it's no surprise Seattle public schools are locally focused and nutritionally sound when it comes to school lunches. Kids are treated to a mélange of pizza and burgers every day, including vegetarian options aplenty and express grab-and-go items such as turkey-pastrami subs, hummus platters and chicken Caesar salads. Daily entrées range from fish tacos with chili lime salsa and bean and cheese enchiladas to spicy Buffalo wings with potatoes and garlic toast and chicken teriyaki with whole grain rice.

The health of the student body is no joke to the public school district of Berkeley, Calif. Thanks to chef and activist Alice Waters, who developed the Edible Schoolyard Project, the powers-that-be eliminated all processed foods from Berkeley school lunch menus, as well as hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, high-fructose corn syrup, refined sugars, and other harmful chemicals, dyes, and additives that routinely make their way into institutional eats. The menu features food from local sources, including all kinds of Mexican delights (burritos, enchiladas, tamales, nachos, quesadillas, crispy and soft tacos), balsamic chicken wraps, and spicy teriyaki drumsticks with root vegetable slaw.

Facebook/Edible Schoolyard New Orleans

New Orleans is a mecca for dining, so it should be the case that the great food carries over into the schools. Thanks to the Edible NOLA program, it does. Students don't just eat great food in the FirstLine schools where this program runs, they also plant and harvest it, learn about its history and nutrition, and sometimes even cook it. That's right: the kids are lucky enough to have kitchen classrooms on select sites, allowing them to truly get hands-on in the process. Dishes you'll find at Edible NOLA schools include sweet potato soufflé, watermelon, feta and mint salad, and Mexican chopped salad.

As a member of the Green School Alliance, Ross puts an emphasis on conservation, using ingredients sourced from local farmers and business in more than half the food served in the illustrious Ross Café. Additionally, students learn to grow and harvest crops from the school's organic garden, some of which are used in the café and others donated to a local food bank. The students bus their own tables, sort the recycling, and even send food scraps to a local farm for compost. Meals run the gamut, from Brazilian fish and shellfish stew, chili (beef and vegetarian), brick oven margherita pizza and balsamic-glazed salmon to mac and cheese, spinach and feta pie, red beans and rice with andouille sausage and brown rice with roasted zucchini and sautéed broccoli rabe.

No kidding: the French Culinary Institute's chef Bobo is in charge of this NYC private school's "Eat Right Now" culinary program, and he doesn't disappoint. Ten-day menus are submitted a week in advance by rotating members of Bobo's kitchen squadron, with each set containing 40 percent chicken, 20 percent red meat, 20 percent fish and 20 percent vegetarian. There's a fully stocked salad bar with dressings made from scratch each day by in-house chefs, along with daily soups, sandwiches (which are typically vegetarian), and starches like quinoa and whole-wheat pasta.

This NYC private school boasts a menu that rivals nearby restaurants, teaching the future-leaders-of-America early on about the amazing eats they can look forward to once they graduate from the Ivy League college of their choice and land a lucrative job at a high-powered firm. That's the plan, at least. With "Meatless Monday" and "Tasty Tuesday" as integral aspects of the weekly-changing menu, the kids here never get bored.

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10 Best School Lunches in America (Slideshow)

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Seattle has always been a progressive town for food, so it's no surprise Seattle public schools are locally focused and nutritionally sound when it comes to school lunches. Kids are treated to a mélange of pizza and burgers every day, including vegetarian options aplenty and express grab-and-go items such as turkey-pastrami subs, hummus platters and chicken Caesar salads.

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How the quality of school lunch affects students' academic performance | Brookings

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In 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The main goal of the law was to raise the minimum nutritional standards for public school lunches served as part of the National School Lunch Program. The policy discussion surrounding the new law centered on the underlying health reasons for offering more nutritious school [...]

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school

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The school cafeteria can feel like a battleground. Students get ushered in, let off lots of steam, make a mess and leave. If we want our students to abide by healthy habits and make good nutritional choices, it's time to make our school dining areas a pleasant and inspiring place to be. Here's a hint! Your cafeteria walls can be prime real estate for local artists and, of course, student artists to takeover and shine.

Here are 13 schools that transformed their cafeterias into havens filled with art, color and style. They're now places in which students not only want to eat but also go back to class and do their best afterwards!

1. Food for thought

2. Eat a rainbow

McKay Elementary School in Beaverton, Oregon used a grant via the Oregon Dairy Council to send an important message (in connection with the school nutrition program). Their decor encourages students to follow the golden rule of nutrition and eat a variety of brightly colored fruits and vegetables-that is, a Rainbow.

3. Sunny day

4. A warm welcome

5. Healthy living inspired by students

6. Lunching under the sea

7. A garden of their own

"It's a passion," says artist Joe Wilson of Mobile, Alabama. "I paint not really for the profit of it." He's created nearly 40 murals in Alabama schools but perhaps his most impressive is the three wall mural he painted in the cafeteria of Leinkauf Elementary School in Mobile. It features scenes from Bellingrath Gardens and Home an d Mobile Bay plus a wall of historic local homes and a streetside cafe.

8. Little town charm

At Mary B. Austin Elementary School Mobile, Ala, Wilson incorporated the school's history and location into the mural in their cafeteria. It pays homage to "Old Ann," an ancient oak tree, and the original Spring Hill school building-both still on the campus. The mural wraps around the entire cafeteria, incorporating the windows and doors.

9. A smart take

10. On the farm

11. Cafe Style

12. Natural lighting

At East Hamilton Elementary School in Tennessee, natural light makes all the difference in this bright, open, airy and inviting design they have in their cafeteria. The wall of windows look out over trees and the playground.

13. An open design

Join our Facebook group for more conversation about and insights into the challenges of school leadership.

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13 School Cafeterias that are Truly Works of Art for Students to Dine In

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The school cafeteria can feel like a battleground. Students get ushered in, let off lots of steam, make a mess and leave. If we want our students to abide by healthy habits and make good nutritional choices, it's time to make our school dining areas a pleasant and inspiring place to be.

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caftera

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The cafeteria is where food is sold, purchased, and consumed at school. How food is displayed, prepared and marketed, how the tables, chairs and food are arranged, and the overall cleanliness and look of the cafeteria can impact what students chose to eat. At an age where students are forming their dietary preferences and habits, the cafeteria has the ability to promote healthy or unhealthy food habits, therefore it is important to make sure that the healthy choice is always the easy choice.

Assessment:
Assessing the cafeteria will provide insight into whether it's inviting and if the layout promotes and encourages healthy behaviors.

How to Assess: The Smarter Lunchrooms Self-Assessment will provide a detailed look at your school food environment, whether healthy food items are promoted, and how welcoming the cafeteria is.
Consider These Strategies:
Try these researched lunchroom techniques to promote healthy behaviors in your cafeteria:

1. Offer attractively displayed fruits and vegetables at the start of the service line.

2. Place white milk before chocolate milk in the milk cooler.

3. Make water readily accessible to all students. Try providing fruit and vegetable-infused water to encourage water consumption.

4. Place a variety of fruit at the point of check out.

5. Ensure the food service team is trained to politely prompt students to select and consume the daily vegetable option.

6. Give fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods fun names, i.e., "power peas" and "dinosaur broccoli trees"

7. Ensure the daily fruit and vegetable option is bundled in the grab and go meals.

Create a welcoming cafeteria environment so students enjoy spending their meal times in the cafeteria.

1. Paint murals in the cafeteria that illustrate healthy behaviors - kids playing sports, eating fruits and vegetables, and/or cooking with friends. See if there is a local artist, parent, or art teacher that would like to lead the mural efforts.

2. Collaborate with the art teachers to highlight students' artwork in the cafeteria.

3. Fundraise to replace outdated tables, seating, and other cafeteria fixtures.

4. Put on monthly cafeteria activities that allow students to try new foods and provide feedback on what they would like to see in the school meals. Try a smoothie station, around the world fruit and vegetable stand, meat alternative tastings, and other fun and healthy activities.

The Smarter Lunchrooms Movement: Provides techniques that nudge students towards engaging in healthy eating habits.

Action for Healthy Kids Cafeteria Activities: Provides strategies improving the cafeteria to help to enhance students' mealtime experience so they can eat better.

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The cafeteria is where food is sold, purchased, and consumed at school. How food is displayed, prepared and marketed, how the tables, chairs and food are arranged, and the overall cleanliness and look of the cafeteria can impact what students chose to eat.

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make your cafet

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What if the secret to getting kids to eat healthier is to stop focusing on food?

In spring 2013, the San Francisco Unified School District (S.F.U.S.D.) began a five-month collaboration with the design firm IDEO to re-imagine the school food system. This effort might not sound unique. Childhood obesity has become a hot topic, in large part thanks to the first lady's Let's Move! campaign and projects by high-profile chefs like Jamie Oliver and Alice Waters have aimed at getting fresh, healthy foods in schools.

When adults eat outside the home, it's about more than just food. The same is true for children.

In this case, however, the adults aren't as concerned with what students are eating as they are with how they are eating.

"When adults dine, we don't just think about the food," explained Orla O'Keeffe, the executive director of policy and operations. "The food is important, but so is what's going on around it: the ambience, the service, the company. Why would we assume kids are any different?"

And yet that's just what most school districts do. The S.F.U.S.D., to its credit, has made great strides in the quality of food available to students in the last decade, most recently engaging Revolution Foods, a company dedicated to creating healthy meals for schools, as its primary food vendor; but, until now, they hadn't put as much effort into considering what the 40 short minutes that students actually have for lunch are like. IDEO, known for putting people's experiences, not objects, at the center of the design process (what they call "human-centered design") insisted that this be the starting point.

On July 11, 2013, at Everett Middle School, a diverse crew of high school students sit around low round tables in a cafeteria and look at a picture of Maru, the Japanese cat that became a YouTube sensation for jumping in and out of boxes, illuminated on a screen. "Maru is the best prototyper ever. Fearless. Fun. Today we want you to channel your inner Maru," instructs Coe Leta Stafford, the design director and project leader from IDEO. The teenagers have come to participate in a prototyping session, which will help determine what it is that high school kids really care about when it comes to lunchtime.

Joyce Gu, a senior at Thurgood Marshall High School, lets out a giggle. She's wearing skinny jeans and Converse All-Stars, scrolling through her Instagram feed on her cellphone. She's known for posting pictures of unusual foods that she's tried (the most recent was Chinese abalone).

Joyce is one of the 56,000 students in the district, 61 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced lunch (a family of four that makes $40,000 or less a year qualifies). Despite the district's location in San Francisco, which is 43 percent white, only 12 percent of the public school students are white (24 percent are Latino, 42 percent are Asian, and 10 percent are African-American.) Many white students end up at one of the many prestigious private schools in the city.

Joyce and 14 other students spend the next hour participating in simulations of their lunch hour. They are given an allowance ($5 for the whole week and various options for how they might pick up their food each day, including the traditional lunch line (not a big hit), a vending machine (though the food appears to be fresh, students are skeptical), and a mobile cart featuring meals from a local restaurant (everyone's favorite). Afterward the students are asked to reflect: What did you choose and why? What works best for you? How did you choose?

The answers are wide-ranging and sometimes surprising. Some students delay gratification - choosing to bring a lunch from home until Friday, when they will reward themselves by spending all $5 at once. Some talk about prioritizing sharing food with their friends who don't have any - a dent in their budget, but a boon for their social lives. Still others focus on figuring out which meal they can get the fastest (they have homework to do) that will also give them the most energy for sports practices later in the day. Almost universally, they say that lunchtime is about spending time with friends - first and foremost - not food. The IDEO team documents their answers painstakingly.

Then Stafford asks the students to check out an app on the cellphone stationed at each table. It's a prototype of what IDEO calls "smart meal technology"- where kids can pre-order meals in the morning that they will eat later in the day. They can also provide feedback on the meals and set dietary preferences; student nutrition services, for their part, can collect data on kids' preferences and eliminate food waste. The kids intuitively start tapping away.

Joyce looks at O'Keefe, who is seated at her table observing, and says, "This is too good to be true. Who cares what students want?"

O'Keefe looks crestfallen. When I talk to her about the exchange later, she says: "It was a profound moment. You spend so much of your existence serving kids and then they are genuinely shocked that adults would be invested in doing something for them."

The collaboration, aimed to change that perception, was paid for by the Sara and Evan Williams Foundation, which essentially bought the S.F.U.S.D. time (multiple staff members, like O'Keefe, were pulled off their day-to-day grind to participate), and of course, IDEO's expertise.

But it also bought them something more intangible - the space to be truly innovative. Superintendent Richard Carranza explains, "If you look at the private sector, they have R&D [research and development] departments where people get to dream and create things that don't already exist. That's a luxury that doesn't exist within the school system where we are often barely able to keep the trains running on time."

The S.F.U.S.D. is the largest meal provider in the city of San Francisco, serving 33,000 school lunches and snacks a day. Even so, it's greatly underutilized. Currently, only 57 percent of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch eat it, and only 13 percent of those who don't qualify do. Not only is this a lost opportunity for improving student health (research consistently shows that those who go off campus eat poorly, if at all, and that children consume 40 percent of their daily calories at school), but also for the district's budget (Student Nutrition Services has consistently operated with budget shortfalls the last few years.)

The S.F.U.S.D. - like most school districts - would have traditionally approached a challenge like this by doing an assessment of its current labor, vendors, equipment, budget etc., and then writing a lengthy report of recommendations for improvement. Places like Oakland High School, right across the bay, have recently taken to closing school campuses during lunch in order to force kids to eat the healthy meals provided.

"Sure, we could close all the campuses and get the same results," says Sandy Speicher, an associate partner at IDEO, "but designing with the kids' desires in mind makes them feel valued. Kids learn about what they're eating through their choices. The district learns about consumption patterns and reduces waste. Everyone gets smarter."

Over 1,300 students, parents, nutrition staff members, principals, teachers, administrators and community partners were involved in the process, which included workshops, prototypes and experiential exhibits - all trademark IDEO tools. The IDEO and S.F.U.S.D. teams, consisting of almost a dozen people, then worked together to consolidate the learning and come up with 10 design recommendations and a comprehensive plan for how they might be prioritized, paid for and realized in schools.

The whole team presented its proposal at the Board of Education meeting on September 17 to an unusually full house, starting - not surprisingly - with student voices and also including testimony from nutrition staff workers, the other population for whom the design of the food experience in schools is most urgent.

They proposed three very distinct eating experiences aligning with the developmental stages in a student's life, but most fundamentally based on what the students themselves expressed wanting. For elementary school, they imagine lunchrooms where kids sit together at round tables and eat family style - learning to serve one another in stages (healthiest foods are brought out first by nutrition staff workers who oversee their own carts).

Principal Dennis Chew of Lau Elementary, who had initially expressed skepticism about the communal dining idea during an early workshop, was inspired by the final design and the idea of bringing back the ritual and lost art of communal dining: "The elementary school children are the best teachers for the parents."

He requested that the pilot program take place at his school, where a large majority of the 700 students are Asian immigrants. "Their exposure to American culture is coming through the food that the dining services provides," Principal Chew explained. The cart concept would work well, he believed, because it would be reminiscent of familiar styles of eating, like dim sum, but feature new foods.

For middle school, the focus shifts toward more independence; students can choose "grab-n-go lunches" from mobile carts and then sit in spaces designed by them.

And in high school, it's all about choice; students multitasking on their short lunch break leverage the convenience of new technology, like the app tested out in the simulation, and are rewarded with discounts for making healthy choices and eating at school more frequently. They spend less time waiting in lines and more time hanging with friends.

After hearing the presentation, Jill Wynns, the commissioner of the Board of Education expressed some apprehension: "I am, of course, along with the rest of the board, excited about all of these recommendations and appropriately skeptical and nervous about the ongoing costs...As a matter of principle, we need a go-slow plan."

But the other commissioners, seven in all, seemed on a much faster track: "Put me to work. I'm really excited about this. I want to see us move forward," said Hydra Mendoza.

"Sometimes when we involve students, it's often just to say we did and it's in a token way," admitted Matt Haney. "I've had the opportunity to talk to many of the students involved in this project and they said it was the opposite of that. If we can do that, not just with school food, but with everything we do as a school district, we're going to get better results."

Only time will tell if the S.F.U.S.D. team is able to realize the recommendations, but they have continued support from the Sara and Evan Williams Foundation and are fiercely determined. "I'm long in the tooth," says O'Keefe. "I've seen the 'thud effect' with consultants - they plop down a big report and move on before you've even finished the engagement. This never felt like that. We all have a genuine desire to see this come to fruition."

Carranza, the schools superintendent, puts it a little more poetically: "We've had a chance to imagine where the rubber meets the sky. Now we're getting back to the road with a totally new vision."

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Courtney E. Martin is the author of "Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists" and a founding director, with David Bornstein and Tina Rosenberg, of the Solutions Journalism Network. Follow her on Twitter @courtwrites.

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What if the secret to getting kids to eat healthier is to stop focusing on food? In spring 2013, the San Francisco Unified School District (S.F.U.S.D.) began a five-month collaboration with the design firm IDEO to re-imagine the school food system. This effort might not sound unique.