001Item or grant that we applied for I think it was up to $3 million for up to nine electric school bus so this is sort of a reimbursement. So we will purchase the buses and be reimbursed up to 3 million by the state. We have not heard anything yet, but we submitted the application on March the 17th. We also submitted an application to install solar at Miller Well, I'm sorry. Walker Mills Middle School. And that was submitted March 26th and we are waiting for that as well. Next slide, please. Okay, with regards to the CCAP related operating policies, we have the sustainability policy 0111 and the purchasing policy 3323. Both of those have been reviewed internally and updated for consideration. By the board on April the 29th. So we worked with our internal legal team
002to help review those those changes that we recommend. And the second item here, continued collaboration with the county DOE. To work on resiliency. So using our school grounds as resiliency hubs And you'll probably hear more about those at the um the Seas Summit and later on. More to come on that. But just wanted to let folks know that that's something that we're partnering with the county Department of Environment on. Another good news, we were recognized. Eleanor Choa received an award for leadership in energy efficiency design leads gold certification, even though we applied for silver. We did receive lead code, so that's good news. And as I mentioned earlier, we will be having a half a day sustainability and climate leadership workshop at the seas so this year we will have it in conjunction with Cesar
003Bowie State University. And it is tomorrow starting at nine o'clock till maybe about 1.50. And food waste reduction, happy to report that we were able to add four additional schools this quarter And there you see them there, Judith Hoyer Montessori, University Park Elementary School, Calberton Elementary, and James McHenry Elementary School. So those are the four schools we're able to add In our compassing program. And I guess the last slide or graphic really just ushers us into today's focus discussion, which will be centered around sustainable materials management and procurement. And food waste reduction. So with that now Board member Booza Struthers do we want to jump right in with Director Kirkland or do you have some words to say or that or questions probably The folks have any questions? Okay. Yeah, we can move to questions.
004We have about… Five more minutes for this segment. So if there's any questions right now on the director's report, we could go ahead and take those. All right. I'm not seeing any hands. Thank you so much, Director Morrison, for that good news where it is good news. Yes. I know the federal news is not good news, but we will continue to move forward. Of the… We will be moving now into our Climate change action plan priority area updates, item 2.3 priority six Operational action two I'm sorry. I just skipped 2.2. Priority five, reduce food waste and grow climate-friendly food. And priority six. Don't worry. So for that agenda item, the team that we have from administration is Director Mary Kirkland We have Miss Sarah Gillespie. Director Mary Kirtling, she's the Director of Food and Nutrition.
005We have Sarah Gillespie. She's our recycling coordinator. So those are the two main presenters. We also have christina Garcia Sterling, who is going to be in charge of the I'm trying to remember all these little Hold on a second. Let me just make sure I'm saying them correctly because I have an abbreviation here. So Christina will be responsible for sustainable materials management and procurement. So this is how we listed it. On the priority area so we have those are that's the team for today's presentation, focus presentation. So with that, I'll turn it over to Mary Kirkland, Director Kirkland Hi, good afternoon, everyone. I'm Mary Kirkland. I'm the new director for Food Nutrition Services with Prince George's County Public Schools. And just starting with the updates. So in terms of operational action item. A0a1, which is
006to incorporate student parent staff and community stakeholders input into the tasting panel and student surveys if you choose. And surveys. So for this one here Right now, currently, we do not have a panel to do our taste test. However, for that is something that we're looking to build as we also build our central office staff who will host those committees. So that committee will be led by our nutrition specialist one and our nutrition specialist two. They will The goal is for us to redo our menus, right? But when we do redo our menus to get student feedback so that students are involved. And how do we want to do this? We want to create a panel with students who are committed to making sure that the food, that they enjoy the food that they eat,
007but they also understand The guidelines that we have to work within. So there's an educational aspect of it, but also a part where they will be collaborating and involved in. And that is just to bring new menu items, whether it is meat or meat alternate, whether it's vegan, vegetarian, halal, kosher, but to have students Who have different palates, who have maybe different religious views to be a part of that so that we can build a menu that our students enjoy and that they can all take part in. In terms of parents, staff, and community stakeholders. How we would go about doing that part, how I envision us going up. Doing that part is when we have parent nights at schools That will look like us setting up a taste test either at the beginning or
008the end of maybe say if it's a math night or a STEM night Or something like that, or reading night at a school, having parents come in with their students, they sit down, they taste it together, they give feedback. So then the parent and the student are involved as well as the administration and even say if the board member for that district was there, they would be a part of it as well too. So it's really encompassing. Everyone. Who is involved in helping the student grow. And so then therefore everybody has a part in it to ensure that It's a well-rounded menu in that we're focusing more so on what our students like and making sure that We're just educating everyone on the nutritionals and why we have to have certain food, like why we
009um like what a commodity is or why we may have, you know. Like why things are breaded because they're whole grain. So just educating everyone, but then also making sure that we have everyone be a part of it. So that is the vision. And we look forward to having that start or at least the footwork, the the footwork of it began over the summer to at least build the criteria For it and what we're looking for in terms of, I would say, a student and meaning not that all students can't be involved, but those students who will be The student voice and the student leaders to lead this charge to ensure that students in the schools know that students the students who are a part of the are the voice of the students and though
010that is who they can go back to to give feedback to bring back to the committee, myself and other food nutrition staff. So then we can make a better well-rounded decision For our menus and making sure that they're nutritional, they're whole grain and things of that nature. Should I keep going or are the questions that should be asked? Sorry. If you have any… significant updates to keep going. But if many of these items are now just at the beginning with with your new work as director, we totally understand that. All of these are sort of in a similar place. Well, I would definitely say In terms of, I want to not to skip to the adaptation action item a1 But it's the continue to participate in the Maryland Farm to School program. So as everyone
011may know, the funds for that was cut. There was a program, local school for food, where Those funds, it was a billion dollars that was cut, not a billion dollars from Prince George's County. There were $8 million that was designated for Maryland. 6 million for school districts, and that's across Maryland as a whole. That was supposed to be cut for next school year. However, we did get news that they have extended that program. Until November of next year. So we're going to continue in that. In that realm of working with our partner, Moon Valley Farms to provide fresh local produce to our students. We are looking to ensure that we can use those grant funds over the summer so that we can provide that to our students who will be in our summer food service
012program. And so in terms of It was… Sorry. The implement values of the climate food service. I will say I know that there was a meeting that we had earlier this year where I had spoke with a lot of different, I would say community partners. To bridge our bridge to bridge the work that they do with FNS and to build those partnerships to know how we can have a larger footprint, not just for FNS, but for our students as well too. And how we can provide more resources to them as it relates to food. And so with that, one of the individuals, it was Chloe Waterman. While we spoke in that meeting and we did talk about the survey. That we haven't connected back on that survey to get the student feedback, but I have
013worked with Can't think of the name of the office, but there was an office in which I worked with where they provided a survey to me of just student feedback and what students were looking for in terms of meals. And in terms of school lunches or school breakfast and working with that team that has provided us a whole while, although it was not necessarily specific, you know, most students just said they wanted better food. That has been a That has helped begin the starting point to understand where to start when it comes to asking the question of what does better mean. And so from there. We've gotten that feedback. We've looked through it and we're using that as a stepping stone to build out our criteria for our students who will be part of our
014committee. So that one goes hand in hand with kind of like action item number one. I will say in terms of implement values driven climate friendly food service, I don't have an update in that area at this time. And then… Oh, no, that's all that I have. Great. Thank you so much. And it's, you know, welcome. To PGCPS and welcome to the work of this committee we're so Happy to have you and to continue building upon these action items with you so I think priority six is next. Is that right, Director Morrison? So I believe it is just Mary for now. I also wanted to add to Mary's, I guess you were trying to think of the name of that office And that office is office. Yes. Yes. Strategic planning, does that ring a bell?
015Because they do these surveys. They do the annual climate survey And it spans everything from the food, the culture, the school system. So yeah, so those very good office to sort of work with. In terms of, you know, getting surveys out because they do a great job Now. Are there any questions for Ms. Kirkland? Okay, so with that, I would just, I don't know if she's able to have access. So sustainable materials management and procurement. Was an area that we didn't have necessarily a lead person that was in charge. So Christina, moving forward, this will be her lead area. Now, Christina, if you want to say a few words about that, that's perfectly fine. If not. We'll just go on to questions. Could we put those up? I think I saw a slide with priority
016six had popped up for a second. Thank you. Well, we've tried to Start with the momentum, you know, get going with the momentum so We have the sustainable purchasing policy, which we have internally reviewed. I met with other stakeholders like the purchasing department, and that will be reviewed on the next board meeting on the 29th, I believe. Director Dorothy had mentioned that. And we are evaluating some of these other areas as well in terms of reducing the school meal packaging sent to landfill. And just trying to work really with purchasing with their RFPs. Just in terms of really being able to have a better assessment of the type of vendors And also in terms of work should be implemented for environmentally preferred prefer products and items for the schools. So I think that's an area
017that we're continuing to move forward We're still promoting recycling and waste reduction in PGC. And that's an area that Sarah's been really promoting and we are actually also working with purchasing and procuring that and also finding uh The vendor that would not only provide the the service, but also the quality and level of service that we need. In those two areas. So those are some of the upcoming projects that we are working on in this area. As we try to target our overall carbon footprint. Reduction. Thank you for that, Christina. And with that, I'll turn it over to Board Member Bruce Struthers. And I don't know if we have any questions. All right. Yeah, we have a few minutes in this section for questions if there's anyone who has a question at this time. We
018could go ahead and take that, you know, please. Go ahead and raise your Zoom hand. All right, I'm not seeing any hands go up. So I will. Oh, there, there. So, um. We have invited some guests who were part of the meeting that Director Kirkland mentioned, and I see One has raised her hand and I'm going to go ahead and give her the invite her to join our conversation. If you wouldn't mind introducing yourself and your Your organization miss burden Yes, thank you so much, Pamela. My name is Michelle Burton and I'm with the Food Equity Council Which is housed underneath the Institute for Public Health Innovation. And, you know, Mary, we just welcome you so much and appreciate what you're doing for Prince George's County Public Schools. I'm raising a question because I'm working
019on a project and I wanted to raise it for your awareness. That we're working with food recovery and working with urban farmers in Prince George's County. And we're using this app that's developed by the University of Maryland that connects access produce to food pantries. And I just wanted to put a bug like in everyone's ear This would be of interest moving forward. There would be… any way that we could connect some of that excess produce given what you were just saying with the challenges with the farm to school program. Of connecting with Maryland farmers. I know there are a number of logistical issues to work out, but I did want to flag that and if If you think that could be something that could be something that we could work towards in the coming year.
020Would really love to collaborate on that, even if it's getting the produce to the families or if it's getting produce to the schools. If you want to do a working session down the line. We can talk more. Yeah, thank you so much, Ms. Burton. Any immediate responses, Director Kirkland? Yeah, so thank you for sharing. I think that that uh that is great to know that that is a resource that that is currently out there for the families. I will say um I don't know, I would say in collaboration with food services, I think it'll be more of a collaboration with food services and community schools So that, because I know for our, if it was for our cafeterias, I'm not sure how they, if they could do the volume Right. That we would need. But
021I know that if we would need really honed in on the community schools, I think we will have a great reach as well too. And as well, there's another, I will definitely be open to a working session to talk through this because And working with community schools and There's another program within PGCPS. The name is not coming to me, but I had a meeting with them a few maybe last month, and we were looking at a program and how we can provide They need a lot of ready, I guess, individually wrapped items. And so we're looking at costing out a box of a mailbox of individually wrapped items for students. And I think that that produce would go hand in hand in making sure that At least they have fresh produce to go along with
022those individually wrapped items that could be seen as processed and things of that nature. But nonetheless still whole grain, still providing nutritional value. And I think that adding the fresh produce, whether it's vegetables or fruit. To that would make that more of a heartier box for our students. So to know that that's out there. I would definitely like to connect to see how we can collaborate and build something. Grander for our students, whether it's with community schools or with the other program. Great. And I'll just say really quickly that it could go the other way that if you have items that are going to waste, we could also pick them up And send them to our local pantries too. So thank you for your I think that, oh, sorry. I think that would be great
023because I know after, well, we just came, we just had spring break and it was a long spring break. And one thing that I know that You know, we do try to order less of, but we have to make sure we have enough for the students for the actual school day is our milk. And so knowing that even if like, you know, we have milk, it's not going to last until like a whole week until we get back. It may last throughout that week of spring break. We could donate that to the pantry so then they can then provide that some way somehow to those families if it's something that we cannot, we know is going to go to waste. So to help reduce the amount of waste that we do have from our cafeterias
024as it relates to our milk. I do have a question, but also Dorothy may have beat me to that, so I didn't want to jump ahead a lot. Great. Thank you both so much. I see Mr. Roberson has his hand up. You already got the mic, so you might as well ask a question. It was the same question that we have then, hey, so be it. Go ahead. But so Okay. All right. All right. So I just wanted to… No, I just wanted to put a think about out there. We see a lot of waste in cafeterias like from the plastic milk bottles to the trays to things that Perhaps there are other solutions. So for example, milk machines or food trays that could be washed And so just think about, I don't know how
025that plays out in reality. But it would reduce the amount of plastic waste that we're producing as a system. And the trays aren't plastic. They are cardboard and some schools can compost those, but it would still reduce the amount of waste we're producing. So I wanted to put that out there. I know that's something that the Schmidt Center is interested in and demonstrating. So. Any comments you have are welcome. Yeah, that's great. I think what we'll do is that I think is really well aligned to our next agenda item and how we are you know taking problem, you know, these problems and then doing solution practice around them. I think you're headed exactly in the direction that we want to go with this priority area. And so just for the interest of time. I just
026want to shout out that absolutely those are the you're calling out exactly what this Priority, these priority areas combined. Are where we want to head to. Director Morrison, do you have any questions at this time. Are we ready for that? Yeah. Yeah, I just think yeah it was just, it was a clarifying question I had for Ms. Burton but to to um i guess james's point um You know, we do have the shared table concept where, you know, the students Put what they don't want to eat in a particular area so that we can kind of organize that to go towards communities. I don't know the volume of food that we get out of that. Sarah could probably speak more to that. But so, yeah, it would be I can see A niche where we
027can provide those foods to the community versus it being wasted. And I was also curious to know, you mentioned that you were working with local farmers. Is that these farmers throughout the city of Maryland, this Peteorgeous County, farmers, do you have a list of all the small farmers? That are out there. Okay. Yeah, you can provide that list and to click We're working with Prince George's County farmers. Okay, preserve this county specifically? Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. All right, great. Thank you, Ms. Burton, for adding to our conversation today, this great news. And of course, I think Most people here know that anytime we talk about community schools, which means we're talking about the blueprint for Maryland's future pillar four. That I am always very happy as a board member that we're making
028these connections and bringing all of our various board oversight committees together to improve improve our students lives and our families lives through through the blueprint and food access is a big part of that and community schools is doing that Quite successfully in all of the partnerships really matter. So thank you so much and Thank you to the Food Equity Council for all that you do for all Prince Georgians. All right, so I will move to our next agenda item. We are moving to 2.3 priority six operational action two operational reduce school meal packaging sent to landfill. And today we're focusing on eliminating the use of plastic bags in school-based food service. And so I will start with, I think actually, I think we could start with Ms. Novik to introduce our student team that is
029bringing this problem of practice case study to us They will present for about, I think about 20 minutes, and then we will have about a similar amount of time For reflection and discussion. So Ms. Novak, if you would like to kick us off. Thank you so much. Hello, everyone. Thanks for being here. I'm going to start with Ms. Kirkland. Thank you so much. For meeting with You guys want to understand on that? For meeting with the students, James, Olivia, and noah before spring break. And that was really like an epiphany moment for them. They first of all, felt heard. You use language that they could understand. You really spoke to them, explained terminology to them. Really invited them to be part of an important conversation conversation. And I think it gave them the confidence from
030there to move forward. As strong members in this community that had a voice and an opportunity to express their concerns. And Ms. Garcia, we're so happy to have you here. Because this topic really blends Both Ms. Kirkland and Ms. Garcia, your offices, your departments. And so it's great that we're all here together We just were having a conversation someplace Olivia and maybe It was our CCAP group. Olivia said, oh, I guess it was last time at the Olivia. At the ad hoc committee meeting where Olivia mentioned wondered why we had plastic bags served at breakfast if they were banned in Prince George's County And Ms. Boozer Struther invited her to explore that topic. She was very fortunate that Noah is on our environmental team at Kenmore Middle School with a another group of eighth graders,
031which yes, will be presenting tomorrow at the seas conference on the topic of litter. Which also they have noticed they would like to do something about. So they have worked together, Noah and olivia For months, since we first talked on, I guess I looked at the date, it was March 5th. So it's been about six weeks on this project. And now I'm going to turn it over to them. They are both eighth grade students. They're advanced eighth grade students. They're in all honors coursework. They're very bright. You're going to recognize that right away. And they're passionate about ideas that really They want to make change with. And their team of michael witherspoon James Dubon Garcia and Maio Gadera. They are one big group of students who have students who have taken the initiative and really
032work with professionalism So take it over, guys. Okay. Yeah. Can you all see our screen? Okay. Okay, so… This is… plastic bags in our schools and are they necessary? The problem of practice presented by Youth Climate Leaders of Prince George's County, Olivia Thomas and noah Oh, it is? Sorry. All right. Plastic bags in our schools, are they necessary? Problem of practice presented by youth climate leaders of Prince George's County Me, Olivia Thomas, and Noah Agare. Slideshow. Michael Witherspoon, James Dubon Garcia, and Maya Gudera. And this is what we're going to be presenting as our problem of practice to you. So our climate change action plan priority recommendations alignment. This problem of practice addresses two climate change action plan goals. Cool six, commit to sustainable materials management and procurement. And goal eight, lead by example to
033support transformational change. At Kenmore Middle School's daily breakfast time, which is served in the school cafeteria. Plastic bags are used for containing cereal packages. So when we saw this, it made us wonder If plastic bags are abandoned in Prince George's County, why are we still using them here in our schools? Especially since what we noticed at the time, they seem useless since the cereal was already in an enclosed container as shown in this picture. We mentioned this wondering at a CCAP meeting and Ms. Pamela Guler-Struthers said that she would help us explore this question because it definitely aligned. Six and eight. With Ms. Boother Struthers support, the students from the ad hoc committee have been doing research on this topic using a problem practice protocol. A structured process for teams to analyze and speak and
034seek feedback on a specific challenge or dilemma they are facing in their work, district, or school. It's a way to collaboratively explore a problem gain diverse perspectives and ultimately develop an effective approach. So today we are going to present information and guide a discussion about the problem of plastic bags being used in a seemingly unnecessary way at PGCPS breakfast In hopes that we can develop an effective approach to serving breakfast to our students without using plastic bags. We started by reaching out to PGCPS leadership and asked them to respond to questions on a document. The following people were invited. Ms. Mary Kirkland from Food and Nutrition Services. Miss Denerica Johnson and Ms. Kimberly Allen from purchasing Ms. Sarah Gillespie. And from recycling composting. Ms. Shayla, Stephen, and Dorothy Morrison. From DSR. Ms. De Nerica johnson
035kimberly Allen, and Sarah Gillespie responded, but we were left with more questions than answers. So we reached out by email to Mary Kirkland and she agreed to participate in a Zoom meeting. In attendance at that meeting was James U. Von Garcia, who assisted in taking notes and providing feedback on our work. No, I better and I who helped make and present this The rest of this presentation is based on that discussion and some additional research we did on this topic. During the meeting, we asked mary kirkland the following questions. So the first question we asked was, we wondered based on responses from PGCPS leadership. Who the end user is. And Mary Kirkland suggested it might be the students since they're the last to use it. The second question we asked was what the primary reason
036for using these plastic beds in our school. And Ms. Mary Kirkland believes it's related to the MMFA and CEP programs. And the plan to simplify eating breakfast in school. She said that the Maryland Meals for Achievement or MMFA, required students in elementary schools to put their food in plastic bags to eat in the classroom. In addition, COVID-19 caused students to have to eat their food in a classroom as part of protective measures. During the pandemic from 2019 to 2020. The next question we asked was, what was the primary reason for using plastic bags in PGCPS? And she answered that in order to be reimbursed for the breakfast meals from MMFA, students need to take a food from each of the five food groups. And the plastic bag is a way to easily monitor that each
037student received the full meal and provides the students with a simple way to carry it to their eating location. Another thing we learned was that 5.2 million students will receive breakfast in the school year 2024 to 2025 and that each school abides by their own considerations and regulations regarding their food and nutrition requirements. For example, Title I schools, MMFA, and CEP schools. So this is more about MMFA and CEP. So MMFA or Maryland Meals for Achievement offers meals to students from all families regardless of their income And to qualify, a school must have at least 40% of its students eligible for free or reduced price meals. And CEP or community eligibility provision is a partnership of the United States Department of Agriculture, USDA, And 124 schools are in participation provides nutrition, meals and no cost
038to approximately 82,000 students, Kenmore Middle School. Being one of the 124 schools who participate in this program. So the next question we ask is, do the plastic bags come prepackaged with the cereal or are they provided separately? And Ms. Mary Kirkland said that the plastic bags are provided separate from the cereal. We also asked if the cafeteria workers have to put the cereal in the bag every morning. Mary Kirkland assumed that food distribution with plastic bags became a practice after COVID-19. The next question was, could this step be removing plastic bags from schools that don't eat in the classroom? Mary Kirkland responded saying she doesn't know, but she'll come visit KMS. And see if the use of practice bags could be reduced in middle and high schools. In some schools, plastic bags may not serve
039a purpose. And could be removed. Another question we asked is If Marilyn Meals for Achievement is for all schools or just some schools? She said that the funding comes from the state and then they did select the schools that are provided with the MMFA program. Cep provides free breakfast and lunch, and because the majority of schools are now CEP schools. Mmfa's ways of providing school meals may have stuck with them. Another question we asked was, are all middle school students still eating in the classroom or is it just some of them? And the answer we got was that there are many different models for MMFA, such as eating in the classroom, cafeteria. Or other locations. And Ms. Mary Kirkland can attest to the differences due to her newly given position. Mmfa is also for all
040schools and not just middle schools. Ms. Kirkland is going to visit these different schools, especially Kenmore, to see the different ways food is offered out there. So another question we asked is approximately how many students receive breakfast annually in the district? So wait a minute. I'm going to interrupt for just one minute. So miracle. We talked about this last night. It's not 5.2 million, Mary. So if at the end of this you can clarify for the students how many people do. I don't know where we got 5.2 million. It was in somewhere in that discussion. But you might want to clarify at the end how many students are receiving breakfast annually in the district. Okay. So question 10 is, who is the supplier of the plastic? Breakfast bags used in the district and Mary Kirkland
041answered that it's the Acme paper that supplies the plastic bags, but we don't know the cost yet. Question 11 is what factors contributed to plastic breakfast bags? Not being included in previous plastic bag reduction initiatives of the Greater Prince George's County community. And Sarah Gillespie answered in the question document that we sent out. Saying that Prince George's County Betterback Bill focused on the single-use plastic carryout bags given out by retailers at the point of sale. And not at schools. Question 12 asks, how can we find out if other schools are following the same breakfast procedures And how can we reduce the plastic bags in the schools? So we found out that every school is different, so it may take a long time to actually compete complete the process on a county level because of this
042effective communication to the administration and cafeteria staff for making big changes like plastic bags are crucial. The cereal that is provided inside of the plastic bags is provided separate from the It's actually it. A question for our own camera staff would be Do they put the cereal in the bags each morning? For students? So questions, my curriculum is going to research between the time of our meeting and the CCAP meeting are How many schools use plastic bags The annual cost of purchasing the bags and lastly. How can we eliminate the use of plastic bags with the end users? Being cafeteria workers and students in the school's best interest in mind. As part of our next phase of this discussion, we would like Ms. Mary Kirkland And the CCAP ad hoc committee to consider this important
043question. Could a first step be removing the plastic bags from schools who don't eat breakfast in the classroom? At this time, we invite you to join us to collaboratively explore the problem further gain diverse perspectives, and ultimately develop a more effective approach to the problem of having plastic bags distributed as a part of the breakfast service in our school. Thank you. Oh, well, I'll go ahead and jump in. I just want to congratulate you and thank you for this presentation i I would have never, ever guessed there was such a depth of questions and information to understand around the plastic around the plastic bag. So, you know, fantastic job. And so for next steps for the committee, we're not going to jump right to putting our our highest ranking administrator, Ms. Kirkland, is Director of
044Food and Nutrition Services right on the spot. I was hoping that the committee could reflect both on The presentation, what surprised you? What interested you? You know, the feedback for the students and new questions that questions came up for you that you didn't see You know, it presented. If everyone would like to go ahead and raise their hands, if anyone would like to get us started, that would be great. All right, I see our presenters put their hands up just in case you had something to say before I call on Ms. Kwok, I'm going to go ahead and give you the mic for a second. Thank you. Okay, so we have a question for Ms. Kirkland. I wanted to know the actual number of students that eat breakfast in this school year 2024 to 2025.
045So in terms of an average for the school district on a daily basis, anywhere from 45 to 50,000 students eat breakfast per day. Within the school district and that's broken down from elementary, middle and high school combined together. As well as pre-K kindergarten. Do you have any idea where that 5.2 million number came from? Yeah, so the 5.2 million, that is how many breakfasts we have served overall this school year. Okay, that's important. We're going to adjust that information in the presentation. Thank you. Mm-hmm. All right. Thank you so much for the clarification on the 5.2 million. 5.2 million breakfast a year. That is a lot. I'll go in the order of the hands that I saw raise, Ms. Kwok, Mr. Roberson, and Mr. Noto. Thanks so much. And just to echo what Pamela said,
046just an excellent presentation and an excellent example of what students can do when they connect their passion and interests with scientific inquiry. So just kudos to you all for such a great research and presentation. I was really struck by how COVID-19 has sort of shaped our current practice. Especially around the need for packaging with plastic bags. So that was something that I was surprised by but perhaps shouldn't have been surprised given just how seismic the shifts in response, the school system had to the types of actions the school system had to take on. And I guess this is a really good reminder that we've sort of moved beyond that period of our history. And perhaps there are things that we need to question critically in terms of why we still do those things. And I
047think just it was a really good reminder that maybe we should also kind of audit many of our different practices to see what was sort of a legacy of COVID and how we might, you know, what we might need to adjust. But I wanted to ask a question about, because it sounds like there's some some logistical challenges, especially when it comes to trying to ensure students are getting all their different food groups, trying to think of convenience and many of the different issues that You're raised. And I was curious if like compostable bags ever came into the picture and if that could help kind of multi solve both the logistical challenges on the food and nutrition side, but then also the environmental challenges when it comes to just having So much plastic. So I was
048curious if that ever came up and what would it take to kind of convert to that If that is the solution. We want to get at the core root cause of the problem of plastic but um you know given that some of the The planning challenges on the county side like Yeah, maybe that might be something if Explore. Thanks. For me. Great, Ms. Kwok. I think, you know, the way you've asked that question in terms of did it come up in the in the work done to date, I'll have the students answer if if they reach the point of exploring That alternative. So from what we know so far. The… I don't think that compostable bags have been looked at. Yet because one of the reasons for using plastic bags is um It's also used,
049like you said, the five food groups It's used to like make sure that students are taking all of the foods that are necessary. Um. I think that compostable bags is a good idea if we could like replace them for the plastic ones. I don't know if that's possible but Could I add on to support Olivia um and um would just support students in in this question? Yeah, I don't want to take… Yeah, I don't want to take away from the students. Absolutely, Director Kirkland, when you want to jump in, I just wanted to make sure that it was So I do want to say that I think that I think the overall goal is to eliminate the bags, right? Not to necessarily just make the switch. And so I would say that I think in
050under, I guess. To start, because I know myself And when I spoke with the students. We talked about MMFA and why the bag is used. Yes, it's a residual from the pandemic, but also to note that Yes, it has been used or it could be being used To make sure that they take all the components But the plastic bag in itself is something that um and It's not compliance with the Marilyn Mills for Achievement Program. And so understanding that that in itself shifts us from using the plastic bags because you cannot serve. It's offer versus serve. So when you put everything in a bag that creates a unitized meal. Students no longer are able to choose what it is they want to eat. And so for that reason in itself. If it's served inside of
051the actual classroom where the students are eating, we as food and nutrition services are not allowed to put items inside of a bag. And so this is in this and working in other school districts, knowing how the program is supposed to operate, but also learning that this is how it's operating within some of our schools here. That is something that raises a flag for me to understand that this is something that is non-compliant. So to meet the goal in which which is here to remove the bags i think that this is a great starting point because it's something that we can't continue on for for next school year. So when it comes to the barriers. I think I'm not too familiar with all the administration within Prince George's County, but I think it's communicating to
052those administrators who have also been used to students having these bags to carry food from the cafeteria to their rooms or their respective places. To consume food, that those bags will no longer be available for that next school year. And so I see that as the at least the biggest challenge because I don't know the impact that it will have on those schools and how they operate on a day-to-day basis. And so I guess to know that like specifically at Kenmore, they do not have Marilyn Mills for Achievement. So there is no need for the bag because we also discussed that in our conversation. There is no need for the bag at Kenmore. And so before that change is made is to speak with the administration to let them know this is what's happening because
053I don't want to go, we don't as food nutrition services. While it's something as small as a plastic bag, I don't know the impact that it could have on their school operation outside of meal service and how it relates to the academic day. And so I just want to make sure that we are having, if it's something that goes out as just a notice to say the plastic bags are removed. We can do that. I don't even know if schools will notice if the bags are not there. I'm not exactly sure, but I think to know that for next school year. Now knowing that this is something that it helps us align within the goals of the action of the climate change action plan. We can we… the goal is still to remove the bags,
054not necessarily replace them with compostable bags. Thank you so much, everyone, for the responses. I'll move to Mr. Roberson's comments now. Thank you. So I want to first start by congratulating the students on a really clear uh well-researched presentation And also say that i'm just really proud that we have students that have the courage to really start change. So well done. So my first question was the same as Ms. Quarks, so I'm going to move on from that. I just had wondered from the students of It sounded like one or both of you had a question about Your driving question was, you know. Prince George's has a ban on plastic bags, so why are the schools still using them? Which is excellent. I just wondered if you had heard other student concerns along the same
055lines. And my second question is, did you consider interviewing the food service staff on site at Kenmore. It's really awesome that you went to a primary resource for the information, but I was just curious if you talk to them as well. So for your first question? I know I didn't really see. You didn't see. Yeah, we didn't really see Any students talking about it? Really, it was just a notice that we had seen. One day, I had just wondered. Due to… like previous knowledge of like plastic bag than in PG County in general. And to your second question, we had um like considered talking to them But we never really actually ended up talking to them about it. Thank you all so much. Mr. Noto is next. Thanks. So I actually had a couple of
056questions. But first. I wanted to, again, congratulate you all on the work that you did on this. This is actually a subject that I am… very interested in. This is part of what i actually have studied in the past, not the plastic bags portion of it, but school meals in general is something that I actually studied at the graduate level in the past. And you all got Surprisingly into the weeds for it. So congratulations on that because this can be very, very complicated to learn about I'm really impressed. So my… The question is similar to something that Christina mentioned earlier, which is What's to stop us from just using paper bags? Which may not necessarily be recyclable, but I mean, I feel like are just a cheap and easy alternative. But then I guess… This
057is perhaps more of a question for Ms. Kirkland, which is that As I understand it. Schools that participate in the Maryland Meals for Achievement Program. Are specifically getting breakfast that the students are supposed to be eating in the classroom. It's not necessarily to be provided in the cafeteria. There may be a difference then for meals that are provided in schools that receive funding for MMFA versus schools that are not. And then I suppose the last question, this is also for Ms. Kirkland, which is. Do schools get fully reimbursed? For what I guess would be like an incomplete meal where a student would only grab say like the cereal, but not get the other portions that would constitute a full meal. Okay. So going backwards from your question, just working backwards um So if a student
058does not grab a complete meal, then those items will have to be purchased a la carte. So we encourage the student to always go back and get a complete meal. That's in traditional breakfast. For MMFA, It has evolved over time. It used to be to where the food had to be delivered to the classroom and students have to eat in the classroom. However, as schools have evolved. The legislation has now allowed us to serve students from kiosk So they can grab it and go to their classrooms or they can go to the cafeteria line and grab their food and then go to the classroom and it still be an MMFA school. And this was because Sometimes if you have a high school that's MMFA, it can be a very large school. And the footprint of
059the school with the amount of food you have to provide, it just does not provide a quality product, one, but then also Food, it could compromise the food that's served in terms of it being outside of the the temperature danger zone and things of that nature. So they have redone the regs to where we can have different service models for MMFA based on the schools. And that's at the choice of, I would say, food, nutrition. But as food and nutrition, in my experience, we give the choice to the administrator to say, which model would you like? Based on the layout of your school in terms of when students are coming into the building, things of that nature. So, um. To answer the question, if the student does not take a whole meal They are encouraged
060to go back to get the entire meal so that we can we can claim it. But if they do not grab it at MMFA, if they do not grab a whole meal, we cannot claim that meal. But in terms of Oh, I think I answered them both and both of those in one. Because I wrote down different models for meal service for your first question. So it's basically different models that we can implement in schools. So therefore. We can serve them in the classroom at a grab and go kiosk or through the line. But I think to also know that there are schools that Specifically in Prince George's County. There's a program there's a program It's not a program, it's a model. So it's called Breakfast in the Classroom. So you have schools that practice
061the MMFA model, but they are not an MMFA school. If that makes sense. And I believe that that is a residual of those schools were possibly an MMFA school prior and the principal wanted to keep the model and they were told they could keep the model because that's what they have been used to and therefore they have breakfast in the classroom, but it is not an MMFA school. It is a traditional breakfast school. Great. Thank you so much, Olivia and Noah. Responses to the first part of the question around the Classic. The lunch bag, which of course has stood the test of time decades of the brown paper bag that is used. So you're talking about the first question, right? Okay, so… We were thinking about that and We said that it might not be
062a good idea just to use paper bags instead. Because paper bags still take trees to be made. So it's also not the best for the environment, especially if we could just like eliminate them to begin with. If they're not necessary. Thank you. Yeah, I'm like, yes, no more trees. Cut down for bags. Great. Let's see. I see Ms. Garcia has her hand up and Ms. Novak, and I think that gives us enough time for the next two questions and for this agenda item. Hi, thank you. I just wonder congratulate the students on just the common sense in your in In your presentation, you know, you saw that the cereal was already in its package and it's still in another plastic bag. And I think that's where our work really comes in hand. So I really
063want to commend you all on how you started this process. And the great work that we're doing with the purchasing department. As a starting point, really establishing that purchasing policy With the guidelines on environmentally preferred products And really, um. Analyzing and assessing how we can integrate the sustainable purchasing policy to contracts and vendors. What we've discovered in this process too, as we looked into the bags, how that decision was made That was also a purchase that was done on a written on a contract that was already established and not specific with a partner county of ours. So, you know, that's something that it's still being explored because I think just really knowing how those decisions are being made and um And what that process is. There's many unknowns. Was it from FSN or purchasing? And
064then you dig deeper and you find out how that decision was made. So I think… And this is, you know, it really goes into trying to not only establish that policy, but Our future work with purchasing in the next coming month to try to incorporate this in their website. Educate the staff and also being able to include also How are the products being disposed? Is that being considered as part of that total cost in purchasing. So there's several aspects that we're looking at. I know there's some things were mentioned here as we're tackling some of these different areas. In priority six. And it's really exciting to just hear where everyone, the collaboration that exists and how we can collaborate further to really resolve some of these issues and meet our goals with the CCAP. There's
065also, you know, we've also been meeting with environmental consultants and trying to evaluate the impact of implementing and doing a reusable study. And we're in early talks of that. So a lot of the things we're starting to plant the seed more than anything, we wanted to re-energize our members in this committee and we're also having at the beginning of the next month We're having a priority six and seven to really get the momentum going and spark the interest among Our CCAP members and seeing how we can continue targeting this. So I just wonder Commend the students and say, you know, we're happy to continue collaborating and seeing where we could get your continued feedback. In the future. Great. Thank you for those additional updates, Ms. Garcia and the relationship to this to the plastic bag
066purchasing and beyond, you did bring up that there's actually, you know, the costs to dispose as it is to purchase. I'll ask Olivia and Noah if The cost of disposal was something you researched. That's something we went into depth. So I didn't quite we didn't quite hear you. That was something that was did not come up in your research at this point We didn't really research that. We might have talked about it once, but… Not really. Okay, great. Thanks for that update and um And then also to Ms. Garcia for bringing that other element of looking at this problem into our work here. And so I guess we'll wrap our our section with Ms. Novick and the responders to Ms. Novak and then We will move on to the next agenda item. Very briefly, three
067little things. I was in elementary school when we started that breakfast in the classroom, Ms. Kirkland. And I think it was championed by a council member. So I'm not sure about that, but that might be something you put on your That could be a thing. Also, I really appreciated what you said about being respectful of reaching out to the schools because I know our cafeteria is very compliant and very disciplined and dedicated. And they do say things like, you got to go back and pick a fruit. So I think they would appreciate the respect of, hey, we're making these changes and why. And finally, I just wanted to say I agree also a lot of our residual policies from COVID-19. That some of that's a fact. All right. Thank you so much for adding those
068additional thoughts, Ms. Novak. I did see that Mr. Meyer raised his hand, so I'm going to Give him a chance to pop on here before we close this agenda section. All right. Well, maybe we will circle back to him because I don't hear him coming up. On, but Mr. Meyer Can you hear me now? I'm sorry. I'm on earphones. First, I just wanted to echo what everyone else said about the students doing a great job on this. Two very brief questions. One for… the team from PGCPS because we mentioned composting earlier. I know my school, Mount Rainier Elementary, is starting to implement breakfast composting in the classrooms with much smaller containers. This school year. So I was curious how many schools total we have who would be doing breakfast composting across PGCPS. And then secondly,
069for the students. Now that you've gone through this process of researching this question, was there anything else that jumped out that either you would either you would want to do research on Or that you'd recommend for some future team of students. To research as a similar question. Because this has been a great model to really watch your presentation and learn how you went through so many different steps and it seems like something that we should be encouraging more students to do within PGCPS. Thank you. Noah and Olivia, do you want to respond to that first? Yes. So… James is actually researching. The topic I think was talked about Once in this meeting. About um food waste and making food waste and making changing up like food to make it um foods that students would enjoy
070more so that there's less food waste. So I definitely want to help him with that. Thank you. That sounds like looking forward to hearing whatever the results are of that. If we get to get it by the rest of the school year. And anyone on the team know how many of the composting schools have moved to the step of the in the classroom composting bin. Not sure if we have… And as Levine Brun said. So I do see Sarah on there. Sarah, did you want to answer that? Yeah. Can you hear me? There we go. Yeah, so we don't have, I don't have an exact number at this point for our schools. So we typically start in the cafeteria, right? We get the biggest bang for our buck in the cafeteria with all the food.
071And then we've been moving into the classroom. But not all of our schools eat breakfast in the classroom. So that's the other factor too. So it really just varies per school, but typically we're starting the cafeteria and then if they do eat in the classroom you know that's kind of step two because it's a very different program that's run differently in the cafeteria versus in the Classroom for collection. Thank you so much for that update. It does sound like something that, and I'm sure Director Kirkland, you're working towards this that as we explore anything related to our priorities in the food services at the building level that chart that has all of those Differences around what type of program, how it's funded or not funded. Or just general. And if the you know the alignments
072around composting would be of great interest how we do that. So it sounds like the program Then at each of the schools is utilizing will have an impact. So it seems like that's a data point That if you're not that would need to be tracked for all the future questions around this. And after Mr. Meyer's questions, Director Kirkland, did you have any additional information to provide Wasn't sure if there was something there for you to answer Not at the moment. No, I don't have any feedback, no. Okay, great. Thank you. I didn't want to move on too quickly. And thank you all. And once again, just great job to the students. Thank you. So we're going to move to our final agenda item. We have about nine minutes. It's about nine of six. We were
073going to try to end right at six today working on keeping our meetings to 90 minutes. We might go over a few minutes Because I didn't want to rush into the agenda item without giving Olivia and Noah a chance to make any final comments about their experience and working with us today. I just want to say thank you for everyone for giving us feedback and asking questions on our project. Thank you. We learned a lot in this process. So thank you a lot. To everybody who helped us. Yeah, thank you. And we thank you. I think we all did too. And I certainly took note of Mr. Noto comparing this to graduate level work. And there were moments, you know, where I felt that stretch so Thank you. Outstanding job. So we have our final
074discussion for today's meeting 2.4. Discussion on student engagement for priority five Operational action one incorporate student parents, staff, and community stakeholder input into PGCPS venues and you'll note You know, there's a theme of today's meeting coming back to this number one priority. And I'm going to once again have Ms. Novak start to introduce James, who will be presenting this section. Thank you, Ms. Novick. Hey, everyone. James, former Kenmore student, current Parkdale student serves on the pegress team Star of the show at Parkdale's um performance of Cinderella. And just a really Good job, James does of picking the problem and then being driven on driven on working to find a solution to it. And so what he's going to talk to you about today was, again, just a general discussion of food waste in the cafeteria
075and then wondering if students enjoyed the food more, would there be less waste? And so, James, you're on. Hey everybody, I hope you guys are having a great evening. I'm going to share my screen right now. And I just have a short little presentation that I made. Okay. Can everybody see it good? Everything good? Okay. All right. Yes. Today I'll be talking, giving a little update on student engagement on specifically priority recommendation number five. Which is reducing school waste and growing climate friendly food. I'm going to start off with a little introduction to the topic. And my connection to this topic. Now, during my time at Kenmore Middle School and Parkdale High School. I noticed that a lot of times after lunch The waste bins were often full to the brim. And when I would
076go up to them and like try to see what was going on. A majority of the volume was actually food that was unfortunately being wasted and just thrown into the bin. And this discouraged me particularly Because my family would always tell me stories about when they were living in Honduras. And they never had enough money to have enough food. So just this whole topic on food waste is something that connect to like dearly. I figured a solution that would probably work best would be improving school food. Is that something that I've heard a lot from my peers at school and also when I attend meetings like pea grass They were having a climate culture survey at one of our PGRAS General Assemblies. And one of the questions a majority response was that school food, unfortunately,
077is not the best that what it could be. So next. I want to talk about what steps I take next to resolve this issue. And the first thing that I did was I met with Ms. Novick after a meeting And I brought up this idea to her to receive some advice on what I should do next. And then from there, she actually played a meeting with Miss Boother Struther And then so that we could get her insights on the ideas. And she thought it was a great idea. And that we should meet with Ms. Kirkland to get her opinion on it. And then we end up meeting with Ms. Kirkland and that's where it was brought up the idea of having this student advisory board thing that the students would try food and then give
078their opinions on it and see what adjustments could be made to the menu. And that this was something that was something I believe what we're trying to do right now. And one point that I really want to bring up is looking at CCAP's history with this priority recommendation. Like it was stated. This was an operational action that was a part of the original climate change action plan document all the way back in 2022. But it's theorized that because of the shift in directors Unfortunately, this initiative wasn't successful. But I just thought this leaves us with a new start And we can start fresh with Ms. Kirkland and that we can implement this again And we can really make some positive change in food waste and school menus and everything like that. Um so that That
079was it. It's just a little update. I want to say thank you to Ms. Novik, Ms. Kirkland, Mr. Roberson, and of course, everybody on the CCAP team. For giving me guidance my next steps on this issue. All right, fantastic, James. Thank you so much. And, you know, again, I want to commend you for bringing forward to this committee your passion around this issue. And, you know, thank you for you know um you know having the Bravery to bring it forward, also to bring in your personal experience in your personal experience to seek the help needed to be able to be a student leader in this area. And so… with, you know, now we can now we can to the members of the committee This is a time to both reflect on the presentation or ask
080specific questions that you're interested in in this priority area. So I'll give a second if there's any hands that will go, any hands for this Topic area. Hi, Jen. Thank you, James. Also. I'm working out right now, so I'm a little out of breath. But thank you so much for your presentation. Just like Pamela said, the connection that you have to the issue really highlights significance of it. Sort of puts front and center front sort of the stereotype about America lots of abundant resources, but they all go to waste and you know what can we do, especially when it comes to advancing some of our sustainability goals so i'm really I'm really glad that you raised that. I think one challenge that I see at the federal level, and I don't know how this is
081going to play out anymore given what's happening at the federal level. But there are very powerful food lobbies that Historically. Pushed for their food items to be part of what is offered at schools. And I worry that while I completely agree with the premise of your inquiry and the need to get the root of the problem. Part of the issue is that if students don't want to eat it, they're going to waste it and you're going to see full cans of milk or full package Items in the trash and there's really no way around that. If we continue to push foods Because we're going by political interest rather than what students want so i'm this might not be a i mean i'd love to hear your thoughts james in terms of what you think Could
082be a way forward when it comes to really dealing with some of these food lobbies and then maybe for Ms. Kirkland or for person like what are PGCPSs tactics for dealing with that kind of influence, especially if we want to see change in what it's offered in cafeterias. Thanks so much. Yeah, thank you so much. So James, would you like to reflect first? Thank you for the great question. I will ask if I could have like a Could you ask the question again? I just couldn't really understand it. I'm sorry. No worries, no worries i think I think my ultimate question is, you know, with all the good intentions of trying to address what is offered through PGCPS. Are there more systemic structural challenges when it comes to having to also negotiate with powerful food
083lobbies that have their own industrial interest and incentives that will oftentimes conflict with what students want and what they will eat. So just curious if you had thoughts on how to navigate that and then also for our PCCPS colleagues thanks Honestly, that's such a complicated and like you really need to spend time thinking about that question And I would definitely need some time to construct my answer. If any other, like Ms. Kirkland would want to reflect on that. Absolutely. So I think in terms of So understanding that food nutrition does have guidelines that we have to work within, that we have to abide by. Like we have to have whole grain. We have to have a certain amount of sugar. We can only have a certain amount of sodium. So a lot of our vendors
084that we work with, they create items that fall within that realm. And so we know when things don't have a lot of salt in them, you know, it's not as tasty. We know that when we know that when everybody does like sugar, but we have to have, there's guidelines that we have to meet by Literally next year in terms of our sugar how much sugar is offered within the week. For students at each grade level. And so we know that we have those barriers, but I know that we have our vendors are working very hard to ensure that They stay within those guidelines, but they also provide food options for students that fall under K-12 that They will find tasty. I will say currently tomorrow. For James, for Noah, and for Olivia. Tomorrow, I think
085it's on the middle school menu. It's this week, but we have a new chicken tender that's on the menu. It is by Tyson. And it's um It's a Tennessee hot and spicy, but it's not too spicy. But we switched our chicken tender because our vendor no longer made the one they were currently making. While no, we didn't do a huge taste test. And getting feedback from our cafeteria managers When we had them come in for training. We had them do a taste test and give us feedback based on what they know their students like. And so that's how we landed on that Tinder that you guys will see moving forward on the menu. So my hope is that we haven't established a way to get that feedback. But if you all taste it, please feel
086free to email me and let me know. But I think that these tenders here work Specifically, this tender here. It's made with whole muscle So it's something that they would actually see if they were to go out to a restaurant. We try to make sure that it doesn't necessarily, it doesn't just taste like what they want to taste like, but it looks familiar as well too. So then it doesn't look like, oh, this is just school food. No, this is something you can actually pick up at the store if you wanted to. So I think our vendors really try to work within that barrier. The barrier that could be seen. It could be seen as a barrier in terms of the regulations, but I think our vendors do a very great job in making great
087products for our students. To enjoy in schools. It's just a matter of getting the right product for our students. Based on what it is they'd like. Thank you both so much for responding. And I think, you know, I think when I hear a big company name like Tyson. Providing the chicken nuggets that begins to I know I certainly… began to understand what that looks like in public school food services Any other questions before I move to adjournment? Mr. Meyer? And Director Moore. Yeah. Sorry, I didn't put my hand up. Thank you. And once again, I'll make this quick, but Question for… Again, the PTCPS team Many of these regulations come from the federal level. Are there any that you deal with at the state level where we could at least do state level advocacy to
088try to improve The options available to you. So the regulations that we get, like it comes from USDA. Usda gives that to the state and then the state then gives that to to the LEA, which is Prince George's County or the school district so um I think you, I'm not, you could lobby at the state for it. Oh, God. Uh-oh. Oh, you could be an advocate at the state level, but to know that they are My understanding is that the USDA gives them the guidelines. They make the rules based on the state and how it fits within the state, depending on the program and what they can and cannot change. And then that's what they pushed down for the LEAs to then abide by. Oh. But in terms of nutritionals and things of that nature,
089I think that is something that happens Since at the federal level, that's like nationwide who has to meet those requirements. I don't think that's something that we can actually change because it's change When you look at it, it's lowering sodium, lowering sugar, and they have given us um I believe a five-year plan to make sure that we get those numbers down to meet the requirements by 2026 and then some by 2027. Thank you very much and i that was just we've spent a lot of time doing work in Annapolis over the last couple of months. And so if there's ever any I'll say Annapolis interpretation of something where you think it would be… Mm-hmm. Make your job easier to have it be interpreted differently. If you could just try to make sure you flag that
090with the board. I know that the overall guidelines come from the federal, but if there's anything at all at the state level, we have at least a little bit more control uh just Requesting to flag that for the board and for the administration. Absolutely. I will say currently MMFA is something that we can help to change at the state level in terms of the guidelines when it comes to elementary schools. Because we still have to feed the elementary students in the classroom. Only secondary students can go through the line and eat from a kiosk. So just putting that out there. Thank you very much for that clarification. Yeah, I just took notes for board priorities. Thank you. As we think about the next legislative session. So we're going to go to Director Morrison and then
091uh Ms. Wunderlich. Yeah, just two quick uh comments you know james i definitely admire your passion. My mom always used to say real full waste brings willful want, right? Whatever that means, I guess we all can figure that out. But I think, you know, TIS can be quiet. And I think that you hit the nail on the head when you talked about, you know, going back to the whole student advisory board. I actually read that survey that Director Kirkland mentioned earlier and what I read, most of the students um Wanted food that maybe tasted like what they had at home. And, you know, Prince George's County public school system is now very, very diverse so i mean some talked about jerk chicken. Some talked about Middle Eastern type stuff. So I know it's going to
092be hard to Accommodate everything, but I think that's a place to start to figure out what it is that the students are asking for. Another point that I want to put, and this is just from my personal perspective, you can make a food tasty really just by herbs and spices. And herbs and spices have nutritional value as well that are good for the students. But that's a different, that's for a different, you know, I guess, conversation. We can go into details at a later date But yeah, so there are ways to avoid the salt and the sugar, which may be bad for you, and then focus on the herbs and spices, which are much Much healthier. So I just wanted to make those comments. That's all. Thank you again, James. Appreciate your passion. Great. Thank
093you, Ms. Wunderlich. Good evening and thank you to all the students for their great presentations, their studies and inquiries. I really appreciate it. James, I was wondering if you, because I know some of this is education as well as Trying to capture current um like student preferences and taste and how we align those with like what's what's available and what can become available. So we reduce food waste. Have, I mean, there's so many influencers on TikTok and Instagram that are really um they're really consolidating like how to have like healthy snacks for athletes like how to have, like how to really punchy, like one two threes on like what you should eat before practice, after a practice or You know, in the morning when you wake up and things like that. I don't, I mean,
094I figure I feel like there's a little bit of like encouraging students to expand what they want to eat and how they want to eat it based on, you know, how they want to More brain power, more strength, more whatever. Have you guys thought at all about like how to leverage any of the social media And helping with the education around nutrition. So… These are some really good questions. So… I definitely think social media is a very important part. A very important part in all students lives in all aspects And we can use social media as a way to you know, give like educate them in a way, like you were saying. Okay, so… Sorry, I'm a little nervous while I answer these questions, but… Yeah, thank you, James. Thank you. Ms. Burton. I think
095you'll be our final question. Yeah. Oh, sorry. It wasn't just like a question. I guess the question could be Since I will be interacting with parents at Brighter Bites school sites, this could be an opportunity to better educate families about the benefits of school meals and all of the constraints that you were mentioning, Mary. I'm not sure if parents are aware of all of that and that these meals are actually Nutritious for their child. So maybe there's some materials that we could share so that they understand that they take advantage of what's being provided for them. Great. Thank you for making that connection to Brighter Bites, which is a at our community schools, utilizing community schools funds to participate in that. Program as well as the grant funded program so Director Kirkland, did you have
096a response to that as well? I am very aligned in I think there's a lot of information for FNS that we have that I want to put out there. So that parents know. I'll just say as simply as our menus right now, right? We have meal viewer where our menus can be viewed and you can see them for the month and the next month and it tells you the calorie counts. And if you have a child that has an allergy, it has the big, I think the big eight or the big nine, you can click on it and it'll show you what they can and cannot eat. So just from that perspective, knowing that I believe PG has had that. For a while now, I believe, but a lot of parents may or may not
097know that that exists. I'm trying to… And you mentioned social media. I'm trying to get a social media page for FNS. So then we can connect with the students in that way because I think that is one way in which we can connect with students. And so even having the resources for parents to know like, okay, these are the new regs that are out and this is what you can expect to see coming up on our menus and for them to know that we do have fresh fruit, we do have fresh vegetables. And while a lot of things may Seem processed because they are, they're made with they're made with whole muscle. They're made with all white meat. So these are still things that are still healthy for our students to consume. Just being able
098to give that information to parents so they see they don't just see chicken tenders and think like, oh, okay. It's just a random chicken tender or just a random chicken nugget like they have at McDonald's. No, this one is actually curated for K-12 to provide a certain type of nutrition nutrition for students. So that's something that I am definitely interested in And putting out there for all aspects, even like farm applications as well too. Thank you so much. So seeing no more hands before I move to German first, just James, thank you so much for your leading of this agenda item and You know, one thing that all of our student presenters here today, and I think the many students that will be at the Student environmental alliance summit tomorrow are representative of PGCPS's strategic
099plan that at least five of us on this committee of current children in the school system and appreciate that the student learner profile And I just wanted to reiterate how and you'll see miss novic is teaching to this student learner profile And you saw it here today. Our students will graduate As global citizens, communicators. Critical thinkers, creators and innovators, and goal-directed leaders. Learners. And I think you saw that all evidence today and that is a That is a testament to our educators who are who are bringing the five critical student learner profile pieces to their PGCPS education So I want to thank them. I also want to give a thank you and shout out to Dr. David Reese, who is our director of equity, diversity, and belonging He provided the model of the model to
100have a problem of practice model that I had watched him utilize during a special education town hall and asked if he would provide that for our students to do a To bring to this discussion. So we want to thank him as well. I do see that Ms. Adeline and Director Kirkland raised their hands since I before I get to German, I want to make sure to call them. We're having trouble hearing your sound. Still not clear. How about if we go to Director Kirkland and come back to you? Oh, I just had a, I'm still getting familiar with the acronyms. What does PGRAS stand for? What's a PGRAS student? Sorry. Great, great question, James. Yeah, I can answer that. Pgras stands for the Prince George's Regional Association of Student Governments. So if you're thinking about
101like SGAs on the school level. Pgrass is like the next level, the county level countywide decisions. Mm-hmm. And it's basically just a group of students that works to works with the SGAs across the county. Oh. I would love to be more connected with that group in some way. Just putting that out there. Actually, I am the environmental outreach liaison I can definitely get you connected with us. Well, I'll be in touch. Thank you. Yeah. And James, if I'm not mistaken, if there's a pea grass website that if I think if someone just Googles PGCPS, Can you, James, remind us of the actual letters in the pea grass. Yes. P. G. R. A, S, G. At the end. Thank you. And so for anyone on this committee interested, the students do maintain a website and the
102leaders and all the different focus areas are on that website. Okay. Can you hear me now Can you guys let me now? Across many aspects of student student health and wellness interests. So thank you for that. And then Ms. Adeline, hopefully your sound is clear so we could hear, I think you have something you need to tell us. Okay, I was just asking if we could get a copy of the PowerPoints that was shared this evening. Yes. So we can have them uploaded to Botox, please. Great. Thank you for that reminder. We will archive those PowerPoints that we that for all of us to go back to in board docs. So now, and I want to thank everyone for staying for the additional 20 minutes. As I noted, I am as your chair Working towards
103a 90-minute meeting for all of us. I know quite a few people have After school activities that we need to be mindful of by six o'clock. So I will move to 3.0, adjourn 3.1 adjournment. The next virtual climate change action plan ad hoc committee meeting will be held On… June 25th. 2025. Thank you all so much for these meaningful discussions. There being no further business, the time is now… 6.21 p.m. And the April 23rd, 2025 meeting is adjourned. Have a great evening, everyone. Yeah.Thank you.