The Portland Pickle

photo credit: The Chicago Reader

Once upon a time, when I thought of school lunches, images of sloppy joes, mystery meat and bright green jell-o would immediately appear in my head. No more! Largely because–there’s no way around it–I’m a lunch lady (sans hairnet).  And not your mother’s lunch lady.  

School lunches are no joke in Oregon, which is on the cusp of making farm-to-table style meals law in public schools.  This means all school meals would be made from scratch with local, all-natural ingredients whenever possible.  Leading Portland Chef and restauranteur turned state official Cory Schreiber has become the public face of this mission.  As the Farm-to-School food coordinator with the Department of Agriculture, he’s been trying to develop and implement a strategy for schools to buy locally grown food. But some schools have already taken matters into their own hands. My boss lady Chef Kathy Block-Brown and her small catering company Four Seasons Flavors have been preparing lunch for the Riverdale High School and Grade School for two years. Next week, we begin lunch at Our Lady of the Lake grade school in nearby Lake Oswego.  

If we don’t serve freaky mystery meat and florecent green jell-o, then what do the kids eat, you ask? Everything is made from scratch—we do make several kid favorites: pizza, spaghetti with meat sauce, burritos, and macaroni and cheese. The pizza dough is from Portland’s Hot Lips Pizza; the ground beef used in the meat sauce and burritos is provided by a cattle rancher within an hour’s drive; and the cheddar in our mac and cheese comes from the cheese gods in Tillamook.  New menu items include: Thai yellow curry with chicken or tofu and jasmine rice, tandoori chicken and stewed curried lentils. They also enjoy a selection of soups, entree salads and sides including hummus, yogurt parfaits and beans and rice.  From the drink cooler, the kids grab Izze drinks (caffeine free/no sugar added), juices, milk and soy milk. An assortment of homemade cookies like chocolate chip, molasses, sugar and jam bars are available daily. Vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free diets are all accomodated.  The school lunch revolution has begun, at least in Oregon!