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Every school day at 11:24 a.m., a line of students streams out of Berkeley High School toward downtown Berkeley food vendors.  

A committee of Berkeley High representatives and local government officials hope to keep students on campus by offering them the same food they can get downtown.  

Mayor Shirley Dean had hoped that food vendors could begin selling on campus in September, but the process has been considerably delayed. On Friday, Dean planned to send a letter to the local merchants advising them of the nutritional guidelines in the hopes of finding vendors who can start selling by next semester, which begins January 30.  

The main issue holding up the vendor program, according to Dean, has been meeting federal and local nutritional guidelines, while still providing food at a reasonable cost. Federal guidelines require school lunches to offer fruit and milk. Berkeley guidelines require that the meals be low in fat, nutritional, and “organic to the maximum extent possible,” according to a draft of the guidelines prepared by Child Nutrition Services. 

“The law requires that the (Berkeley Unified School District) provides free and reduced lunches,” said Joy Moore, project associate for the food systems project. “How that will happen we have not figured out.” 

The federal government reimburses the school district approximately $2.13 per student, Moore said. 

Each year, Dean said the Berkeley Unified School District loses approximately $60,000 on the low-income student school lunch program. She hopes that the new program will be able to make money on some items – particularly smoothies – to counterbalance the deficit. 

A draft of the letter sent to businesses Friday said that the food court will begin with only five vendors selling items wholesale to Berkeley Unified, who will then re-sell it to students. Students would purchase a meal ticket, and exchange tickets for food. Low-income students would receive tickets at reduced rates, but nobody would know how much a student had paid for a ticket, Dean said. 

Students on the Food Court Committee said in a schoolwide survey, students indicated they would spend $4 a day on lunch. The letter said the products must cost the school district between $1.50 and $3 per item.  

Moore could not say exactly how much each ticket would cost.  

“We’re trying to keep it as low as possible, we’re not in the business of making money, we’re in the business of serving quality food,” said Moore. 

The committee, made up of representatives from the school district, the mayors office, the Food Systems Project, Child Nutrition Services and from Berkeley High School, is keenly aware of the need to get students involved for the project to succeed. 

“We’re getting the Berkeley High School galvanized and organized around this,” said Moore. “That’s the only way the kids are going to own it, by being involved in the decision making process.”  

To maximize student input they sent out a schoolwide survey, she said, adding that 113 students volunteered to participate in the process. 

Students on the food court committee said they hoped to serve the food in a nice atmosphere, with good music and perhaps a dance floor for student performances. Desired foods included pizza, chicken burritos, fruit smoothies and Chinese noodle soup, according to the letter to the merchants. 

Sean Dugar, 16, a member of the Food Court Committee who will help advise the district on their choice of the vendors, said they are looking for, “vendors who are student friendly.”  

“If they don’t want students in their businesses on Shattuck, we don’t want them here,” he said. 

Both Deborah Badhia, executive director of the Downtown Berkeley Association and the mayor expressed their hopes that the on-campus vendors will eliminate some of the problems related to student traffic and relieve tension between vendors and students.  

“Our business community very much cares for and appreciates the high school students, and their exuberance,” said Badhia. “The difficulty is that the sheer number of students that come downtown in a very short window of time can impact the businesses. The clientele of workers won’t come to certain businesses for a portion of the day because it’s too filled up with students.” 

Badhia said although the vast majority of students behave well, a small percentage are disrespectful, fight, and “set a tone that reflects on the entire student body and inhibits commerce.”  

“If a group of students is blocking the business doorway, other customers usually can not come in or they feel intimidated,” she said. 

Dugar placed part of the blame for bad student behavior on the businesses themselves. “You’ll notice that the places where students start fights are not student friendly restaurants,” he said. Peking Express is an example of a restaurant where students never have any problems, he said.  

“They treat students like they’re actually human beings,” he said. 

Dean noted that the vendors will not be able to accommodate all of Berkeley High’s 3,000-plus students , but should relieve some of the problems with congestion.