City Council
June 7, 2022
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Edward D. Reiskin FROM: Joe DeVries
City Administrator Deputy City Administrator
SUBJECT: Summer Food Service Program
Expansion
DATE: May 25, 2022
City Administrator Approval Date: May 26, 2022
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That The City Council Receive A Report And Recommendation From The City Administrator Detailing A Plan To Expand The Summer Food Service Program By Increasing The Number Of Sites That Will Serve Food And Expanding The Number Of Participating Vendors; And Identifying Potential Funding Sources.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City Council Adopted Resolution No. 89196 C.M.S. on May 17, 2022, accepting and appropriating a Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) Grant from The California Department Of Education (CDE) In The Amount Of $426,870 and awarding Professional Services Agreements (PSA) To Upton’s, Inc. (DBA School Foodies) and to Flo’s Friendly Foods In An Amount Not To Exceed $304,800 To Provide Food Services From May 30, 2022 Through July 29, 2022. This allows for the SFSP to be implemented, beginning May 31 st across Oakland.
During the meeting, Council Members raised concerns about the number of meals served citywide, the number of sites where food would be distributed, and the number of vendors involved in the distribution. Staff explained that to launch the program on time, the Council would need to adopt the resolution, and agreed upon a report with recommendations addressing the Council’s concerns.
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Expansion in total meals over 2021
The SFSP program has been implemented in Oakland for 37 years and in 2022 has already expanded its scope of total meals served by 33%. In 2021, SFSP provided 29,630 breakfasts and 39,893 lunches and in 2022 was projected to serve 30,000 breakfasts and 65,000 lunches.
This represents a total increase over last year from 70,000 meals to 95,000 meals.
At the time of this report, there have been additional efforts to expand the number of meals, and staff projects that increase to include 12,000 additional breakfasts and 3,120 additional lunches
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: Summer Food Service Program Expansion
Date: May 25, 2022 Page 2
City Council
June 7, 2022
bringing the total meals served to 110,120—a 57% increase over 2021. This number could increase, and any additional updates will be reported orally at the meeting.
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
Expansion in Sites over 2021
There were 33 sites in 2021 and a slight expansion to 35 sites was listed in the original staff report. Since then, staff added an additional three certified sites and are in the process of certifying three more sites, bringing the total to 41 sites for 2022. Staff added new sites, focusing on community-based partners and reaching out to sites in East Oakland. The new sites include:
o Girls Inc – Two sites
o Word Assembly Church
o Housing Authority—Two sites
o PARK AME Church
Staff from SFSP coordinated with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and confirmed that OUSD will be offering lunches at 40 sites throughout Oakland. OUSD is following the same guidelines as the City but does not have the enhanced funding of Sugar Sweetened Beverage tax dollars to increase the portion size in the same manner as the City. In total, there are now 82 sites throughout the City where children will have access to the SFSP free lunch program.
Staff from SFSP also verified with the state that new sites can be added, even after the program begins, and that the City would be reimbursed for those meals. Although staff does not have the capacity to proactively pursue new sites beyond the 83 that are currently opening at this time, organizations continue to approach the City at the time of this report. Those sites will be evaluated and if they can be certified and pass inspections to ensure they meet the basic standards, they will receive meals to support their participants.
Staff from SFSP are committed to engaging community providers at the end of this summer to survey satisfaction with the program to plan for next year, including meal pattern preferences, and will begin site recruitment much earlier to have a better estimate of site needs and community needs. Specifically, staff will evaluate the landscape and perform targeted site recruitment to build sites in underserved communities.
Staff from SFSP will also continue to coordinate with OUSD’s SFSP early to identify sites and promote both efforts across the city with a prioritization of sites that are open enrollment vs. closed-enrollment sites. This process is impacted somewhat by the pandemic as OPRYD sites that used to be open enrollment, allowing members of the public to pick up meals even if they were not involved in programming, are currently “closed” sites only providing meals to children that are enrolled in their programming. This is an important safety consideration for these locations. However, Library sites remain “Open” to all.
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: Summer Food Service Program Expansion
Date: May 25, 2022 Page 3
City Council
June 7, 2022
Expansion of Vendors
The two selected vendors, that engaged in a competitive RFP process, have also confirmed their ability to expand and serve new sites added in recent weeks. The vendor providing breakfasts has the ability to expand above the 600 breakfasts daily that was estimated and submitted in their application. However, it is generally not best practice to have sites serviced by two separate vendors (one for breakfast and one for lunch) due to logistical issues, such as delivery times and health and safety protocols by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding food temperatures.
The State will allow the City to add vendors who receive certification, however that process takes approximately three weeks and includes inspections, taste tests, proof the vendor can meet the nutrition standards required by the USDA, and other documentation. Additionally, to make the effort worthwhile for any emerging vendor, the City would need to identify enough new sites to make the effort profitable for anew vendor.
City staff reached out to three local vendors this spring to fill the original breakfast gap at four locations. One vendor, Chef Marisa with Cook and Run, Inc, an Oakland-based, African American Woman Owned Business has had her kitchen inspected and taste tests of her breakfast products were conducted with favorable results. At this time, staff is working with Cook and Run, Inc to receive certification and will utilize this vendor to fill the breakfast gap at the four sites previously identified and to take on the three new sites that have just been added.
Although Cook and Run, Inc did not participate in the competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) process, staff have evaluated the process and decided that the timing of the RFP and the short window to apply may have limited the vendor pool.
Human Services Department and City Administrator staff met and agreed to process improvements for next year to expand the vendor pool including:
• Releasing the food vendor RFP earlier, the 2022 RFP was released in February, staff will plan to release prior to the close of this year.
• Allowing for a longer period between RFP the release and proposal due date, this year the window was only 2 weeks and next year will be 4 weeks. • Providing Technical Assistance (TA) prior to the release of the RFP for prospective vendors to inform them of the SFSP requirements
Based on recent developments with Cook and Go, Inc, staff is confident next year’s local vendor pool will increase even further.
Staff will use the above-mentioned input from participants and vendors to consider reshaping the local program within SFSP guidelines. For example, SFSP can reimburse for 2 meals but allows for four meal types. City of Oakland SFSP could provide lunch + snack as it had done in years prior, rather than breakfast + lunch. This may be more feasible and allow for broader distribution depending on what sites need and want. Additionally, staff will continue to engage the SSB Oversight Board in the process as the supplemental funding provided by SSB Tax dollars markedly improves the program delivery. Staff did review the SSB (Fund 1030) funds Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: Summer Food Service Program Expansion
Date: May 25, 2022 Page 4
City Council
June 7, 2022
available and could shift some salary savings and other expenditure columns to increase the supplemental dollars SSB provides above the current allocation.
FISCAL IMPACT
As noted in the original report, the costs of meals provided through SFSP are reimbursed by the state, but the City uses SSB Tax dollars to both pay for the staff to implement the program and to improve the size of the meals served with a two dollar per lunch and a one dollar per breakfast supplement. There are funds available for the above projected expansion with a total impact of $15,120 over what was authorized in the past Council Resolution. The resolution authorized minor adjustments to the total cost of the program anticipating these types of changes during the project period.
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
To encourage local food vendors to submit proposals for the City’s contract for meal preparation and delivery, staff conducted outreach to announce the formal competitive process. An RFP announcement was advertised in the Bay Area News Group. Public outreach for the SFSP occurs through a press release and the use of visible banners at all community site locations to publicize the free lunch program in low-income communities. Next year, more effort will be made to directly contact additional vendors as noted above.
COORDINATION
The Budget Bureau, Oakland Parks and Recreation and Youth Development, Oakland Public Library, and the Office of Workplace Standards were consulted in the preparation of this report.
PAST PERFORMANCE, EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
Upton dba School Foodies has delivered meals to program sites from 2017 to 2021 Flo’s Friendly Food delivered food to program sites in 2020 and 2021. Cook and Go, Inc is a new vendor and staff will work closely with that vendor to evaluate their work. The City will again monitor to ensure reusable and compostable packaging, timely delivery of meals, control of temperature during delivery, and delivery of complete and undamaged meals. The SFSP program will also assess the quality of meals provided through surveys and site compliance through site visits.
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Economic: The SFSP provides temporary part-time employment opportunities for four to six program monitors.
Environmental: Reusable, compostable and recyclable materials are used to package all meals provided to the SFSP program. The Environmental Services Division assists with waste Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: Summer Food Service Program Expansion
Date: May 25, 2022 Page 5
City Council
June 7, 2022
reduction efforts at City sites and supporting compliance with State mandate SB 1383 to reduce waste.
Race & Equity: The SFSP provides access to free and nutritious meals for low-income children.
Improvements in nutritional intake are linked to performance in school and overall child health and wellness. Participating sites in SFSP are required to meet the US Department of Agriculture standards for free and reduced-price meals. Area eligibility is determined based on location on USDA-provided maps. Over 70% of the participating sites are in neighborhoods in West and East Oakland that are disproportionately impacted by disparities in access to healthy food.
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council Receive A Report And Recommendation From The City Administrator Detailing A Plan To Expand The Summer Food Service Program By Increasing The Number Of Sites That Will Serve Food And Expanding The Number Of Participating Vendors; And Identifying Potential Funding Sources.
For questions regarding this report, please contact Joe DeVries, Deputy City Administrator, at (510) 238-3083.
Respectfully submitted,
Joe DeVries, Deputy City Administrator