The doughnuts and Pop-Tarts should go.

So should the unloved "rib-b-que" sandwich and the perpetually greasy grilled cheese sandwich.

In their place, School District of Lancaster should provide breakfasts that offer nonsugary cereals, toast, bagels and fresh fruit every day.

Lunches should include salads, fresh — not canned — fruit and vegetables, hoagies and many more menu choices, instead of the ubiquitous pizza, pasta and carrots.

These are some of the changes recommended by consultants who completed a thorough evaluation of SDL's food-service program, which soon will have a new director.

Consultants for Nutri-Tech Inc. said students, faculty and staff had widespread complaints about mushy, overcooked, oily foods and a lack of variety on their schools' breakfast and lunch menus.

Nutri-Tech also found the district has "no documentation of what food is coming in and going out," consultant Robert Johnson said.

And the kitchen at McCaskey High School, where nearly 10,000 meals are prepared each day, "is organized chaos," he said.

Johnson and fellow consultant Paul Schmid presented their findings to SDL school board members at a July 9 finance committee meeting.

The $15,000 analysis was requested to find out what improvements and new equipment are needed for the food-service program as the district embarks on a $198 million upgrade of its schools.

The findings will help whoever is hired to replace former longtime food-service and transportation coordinator Gene Miller, who retired in January.

"There is a tremendous amount of improvement needed," board president Patrick Snyder said.

He asked superintendent Pedro Rivera to work with the new food service director to develop short- and long-range plans to address the problems outlined in the report.

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SDL prepares all its meals at McCaskey and then transports them in sealed disposable hot and cold serving dishes to its 20 other schools.

The hot food containers don't allow steam to vent, so foods tend to become mushy, Schmid said.

In the cold containers, foods like applesauce can spill onto rolls or other foods during transportation.

Schmid recommended that the district begin using vented boxes or switch to a perforated film to cover serving dishes.

One of the biggest complaints from students and faculty was the lack of variety at breakfast and lunch, Schmid said.

On most days, only one entree is offered at most schools. Breakfast pizza sometimes was the sole morning offering on the same day pizza was on the lunch menu, he said.

January's 20-day lunch menus featured foods with a tomato sauce 10 times, pizza five times, vegetables with carrots 11 times and cookies and Rice Krispie Treats seven times. Pizza also was served four times at breakfast.

Fresh fruit was offered only seven times, and tossed salads and celery sticks without dip were offered only once each.

A similar pattern was found in breakfast menus. Fresh fruit wasn't offered in January, nor were nonsugary cereals. But Pop-Tarts, breakfast bars and doughnuts were offered six times.

Schmid said the district's lunch rooms are bright and clean, but no effort is made to display the foods or promote the meal program or the district's catering services.

Milk is stacked in crates, and meals sit in storage containers on the floor until they're served.

Only about 19 percent of SDL students eat school breakfasts. That number should be 30 percent to 50 percent, Schmid said, in light of the large number of students — about 92 percent — who qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

He recommended that the district add nonsugary cereals, toast, bagels and fresh fruits to the breakfast menu every day and offer more choices, such as scrambled eggs.

The lunch menu should be expanded, he said, to include more salads; fruits; vegetables such as potatoes or corn on the cob; and entrees such as meat loaf, baked chicken or lasagna.

The district should be able to expand the menus and maintain its current satellite system with only modest changes in equipment, Schmid said.

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Johnson, who evaluated the operational side of the program, found a widespread lack of oversight on ordering, storing and serving foods.

Food and supplies stored at a central warehouse are not regularly rotated, he said.

A crate of canned mandarin oranges had been sitting in the warehouse since September, Johnson said, and some paper products had been in storage for years.

To reduce handling costs and waste, SDL should stop warehousing supplies and have them delivered directly to schools when needed, he said.

The district also lacks formal procedures on food handling, preparation time and staffing, he said.

Johnson reported finding no major health or safety hazards in district facilities but said some walk-in coolers lacked alarms to signify a power loss or emergency releases to enable workers to get out if they became locked inside.

Many SDL schools also fail to fill out meal reconciliation reports, he said, a cost-saving practice that tracks how many meals were ordered and served.

A four-week analysis of Phoenix Academy, for example, found the school had ordered 1,305 meals, received 1,286 and served 1,094.

The missing meals were not accounted for.

The district also isn't evaluating labor and food costs at different schools or negotiating multiyear contracts for supplies, both of which could help it save money, Johnson said.

He recommended the district begin implementing new operational procedures as a pilot program at one school before adopting them districtwide.

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Board members said they appreciated the report, despite the many areas cited for improvement.

"To say my eyes have been opened is an understatement," Snyder said after a 90-minute presentation on the consultants' findings.

District food-service operations should have been reviewed years ago, he said, but because the department has consistently turned a profit and hasn't had safety or health violations, it didn't come under scrutiny.

The analysis wasn't designed to point fingers at employees for past practices but to help the new food service director implement changes, SDL business manager Matt Przywara said.

Interviews will be conducted this week for the director's position, which is now separate from the transportation coordinator's post.

Rivera said the report was "almost like pulling off a Band-Aid," and now it's time to "move forward and heal."

"If we only have 20 percent of our kids eating breakfast, that's not acceptable for us," he said.

"We have to make sure … students are having a well-balanced breakfast and not a sugary breakfast, where they're crashing by 10 o'clock, and that they're having a well-balanced lunch."

Studies have shown that children who eat a nourishing breakfast and lunch perform better in school.

Providing nutritious meals is part of the district's overall goal of making schools a safe haven for students, he said.

"This is one of those areas where we have to be sure we're getting the best options and the best available resources to the kids."

E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com