Cafeteria food has seen big changes in Lodi schools

I had never seen hot lunch like this.

Then again, when I attended high school some 15 years ago, the hair net-clad lunch ladies didn't wear hip baseball caps and T-shirts, either. And our cafeteria was institutional white and eerily cold. There was no soul, let alone heart.

Welcome to the cafeteria at Lodi High School, home of the best place to eat in Lodi. That is if you ask Principal Bill Atterberry, who claimed its kung pao chicken as the not-to-miss dish in the News-Sentinel's recent Discover Visitors' Guide.

I have to admit, I was skeptical.

But this is a cafeteria where not only the food has received a make-over since the early 1990s — so have the surroundings.

Like others in the district, Lodi High offers a lunchtime selection almost as diverse as a Denny's menu. Pre-packaged cold cut sandwiches and chef salads prepared fresh daily line the chilled shelves while hot-from-the-oven pizza actually cut into regular triangles with a variety of toppings is displayed next door.

I remember school cafeteria pizza being served in one shape (square), with one topping (cheese), one flavor (rubber) and with a puddle of grease collecting in the middle. You could get acne by just looking at it!

Today, the cheese is piping hot and sprinkled with olives, sausage, pepperoni or a little of everything. Students can even choose a Hawaiian variety of ham and pineapple, or nab a homemade square of focaccia bread.

But it's the bars that Bettenhausen is most proud of, and what I'm here to see in action.

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The Asian bar is what students line up out the door and into the quad for every Wednesday — and what Atterberry proclaims is the best place to eat. "The kids love it," he raves.

Seconds after the bell rings for their 34-minute lunch break, eager students are ordering either the kung pao or teriyaki chicken with homemade sauce.

Bettenhausen scoops a large helping of white rice into the bottom of each cardboard Chinese to-go container before passing it onto the next worker in the assembly line.

"Kung pao or teriyaki?" Most choose the kung pao.

"Broccoli? Carrots?" Again, most answer in the affirmative.

In fewer than 15 minutes, the team has served more than 500 students, some of whom are back for seconds.

Junior Rafael Orozco told me it's the "best Asian food ever," even better than his favorite Chinese restaurant.

Friend and fellow junior Eduardo Herrera chimed in with, "I love it."

Another student, in too much of a hurry to dig in for her name to be taken, adds, "Amazing!"

And what a deal. Two dollars not only gets them a serving that honestly took me two lunches to finish, but a personal-sized carton of milk and two sides, including pre-packaged sliced apples and cheese crackers.

While this is the top bar at Lodi High, each week there are also build-your-own sub sandwich, taco salad, burrito and baked potato bars. Similar to the Asian bar, students can choose what toppings they want.

Bettenhausen doesn't add anything to the menu without first asking students, and even then she offers samples before it becomes part of the regular rotating offerings.

Lodi Unified School District to offer free student breakfast

There may be no such thing as free lunch in Lodi Unified School District, but beginning in the fall its cafeterias will be serving breakfast at no cost.

The board of trustees approved the option at Tuesday's meeting. At the same time, however, they increased the cost of elementary school lunches by 50 cents, to $2, and high school lunches by 25 cents, to $2.50.

The free breakfast program will provide students with documented academic advantages and the combined lower price structure will help to ease the financial stress that some families are experiencing, according to Warren Sun, director of food services.

The additional revenue from increased lunch prices will support the district's goal to reduce or eliminate the use of Styrofoam lunch trays.

To date, Sun said, the district's prices have not covered the cost of meal production.

He recognizes the tough economic times parents are facing, but added that with the free breakfast for everyone, the price of both meals will be the lowest of any area district. Elk Grove Unified School District, for example, charges $4.25 for breakfast and lunch at the secondary level.

News-Sentinel staff

It takes a staff of 22 and two lunch periods to make it all come together.

The cafeteria itself is inviting, with red booths remniscent of a popular hamburger joint in town. Bettenhausen was allowed to do with it what she wished, so she had the walls repainted white and gray, and highlighted the ceiling beams in red.

It's an inviting spot where students crowd in twice a day. The overflow enjoy tables in the quad.

"The idea of the cafeteria ... when I was in school, it was for food fights," Atterberry jokes.

Bettenhausen actually ate in the same cafeteria before she graduated from Lodi High in 1966. She went to work for the district shortly thereafter, and has been at Lodi High for 18 years.

Since Atterberry started as principal eight years ago, Bettenhausen has gone from serving 300 students per day to preparing food for more than 1,000.

For the kung pao, for example, she used nine three-pound bags of fresh broccoli, eight red bell peppers and four onions.

The recipe is handwritten in the school's personal cafeteria cookbook, "so if I walk out of the kitchen, someone else will be able to make it," the cafeteria supervisor tells me.

"Truthfully, when we cook, we do it from our heart," Bettenhausen says before ticking off the "pieces of love" she adds to certain recipes — like the garlic in the mashed potatoes, much like what she would serve her own family.

Doesn't sound like the mashed potatoes with gelatinous gravy and turkey with a blue tint that I remember having for hot lunch.

Students in Lodi Unified School District's lower grades, too, receive unique offerings, including salad bars and build-your-own tacos.

Other districts, too, have stepped up their fare.

A few years ago, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Galt High School after they banned sugary soft drinks from their campus and instead opted for healthy fare. It was the last part of a nutrition policy adopted in 2002.

The Healthy School Now Act, which became law in 2007, included $18 million a year to get more fresh fruits and vegetables into school cafeterias across the state.

As I finished eating the last of my huge helping of kung pao chicken, the effort was apparent as the perfectly blanched broccoli crunched between my teeth.

Atterberry was right — this is the not-to-miss hidden eatery of Lodi.

Contact reporter Jennifer Bonnett at jenniferb@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

lodidian wrote on May 27, 2009 8:39 AM:

" Chef,
I wrote---"we should feed those who can't afford food but not every student everyday".
This is crazy! "

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napa valley chef wrote on May 26, 2009 11:41 PM:

" So if a first grader has parents who can barely put food on the table, do you expect that child to go out and get a job so he can eat? "

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lodidian wrote on May 26, 2009 10:20 PM:

" Nellie--
Agreed. Students who eat breakfast do better than those who don't. I just don't understand why taxpayers should have to feed every student k thru 12 breakfast everyday.
The fact that the school system will get more state and federal funds as a result of the give away program makes my hair hurt. California is taxing cities to make up some of the 24 billion dollars needed to balance the budget.
Feed those who can't afford food but every kid every day? 10,000 free breakfasts everyday? Give us a break!
I guess I should just shut up but I am getting too damn old to ignore it---so I blog. It helps a little. "

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Whoa Nellie! wrote on May 26, 2009 8:59 AM:

" Lodidian- please remember that the ONLY thing the LUSD is interested in is raising test scores.

It's a proven fact that kids who eat a decent breakfast do much better in the classroom.

These Educrats don't care where the money comes from because they've grown accustomed to the many Federal & State grants (aka: our tax dollars). "

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Rhodie wrote on May 26, 2009 8:28 AM:

" My kids seems to enjoy the food from the schools. I only let them get one hot lunch a week. My only problem, and this may be a school thing, but charges seem to appear on their accounts when they don't get a hot lunch. I was chalking it up to them not remembering which days they were eating a hot lunch (since it was reported to me a month or more later when the account was running low) but then there was the time when my oldest was charged for a hot lunch on a day when he wasn't there. Makes me wonder how many times a day this kind of "mistake" happens and how much more it adds to the school coffers.

I did call to complain and the charge was reversed and when I asked how this happened I was told if I find things like this just call in and report it. Which means I have to check my kids lunch account everyday to make sure the accounts aren't being charged "accidentally". "

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lodidian wrote on May 26, 2009 8:13 AM:

" Monday's Stockton record contains more information on the "FREE BREAKFAST--- EVERY LUSD STUDENT k thru 12 EVERYDAY" this school year.
Food served will include any combination of eggs, cereal, oatmeal, fresh fruit, CINNAMON ROLLS, milk and juice.
It seems, that by giving free breakfast to every student, every day, the district can make money because the state and federal government reimburse the schools based on participation in their food service program.
Money is money, but it seems LUSD trustees think since funding comes from state and federal tax revenues it's ok to give it away. I don't. "

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