In response to this November’s “Vote and be Heard Week,” held by Student Nutrition Services to allow students to vote for their favorite lunch entrees, Palo Alto Unified School District purchased [number of sushi machines] sushi machines using Kitchen Infrastructure Grant Funds.
Student nutrition manager Alva Spence said students support the change.
“With the different grade levels having an opportunity to share their favorite entrees and ones that they would like to see offered, sushi is always in the top five.” Spence said. “We have made sushi for different secondary sites in the past, but it is extremely labor intensive. We had been searching for ways to provide sushi that was less labor intensive and faster. These machines have been the answer for us.”
Spence said the sushi machines purchased are highly efficient and safe.
“I have absolutely no worries regarding the nutrition of the sushi provided from the machines,” Spence said. “Sushi is extremely healthy and nutritious. My only concern with the machines is the moving of them from school site to school site so that all sites (and) grade levels can enjoy the offerings. Moving equipment always has inherent issues with loading on and off of the trucks.”
The commercial grade sushi machines are from XTops, and speed up the rolling process. Staff cook or steam rice separately, before placing it in a “hopper”. The machine makes a sushi rice sheet where staff place nori (seaweed) and toppings. After, they are cut and boxed for students to enjoy.
The machines were piloted at Gunn High School on Sept. 11 and at Jane Lanthrop Stanford Middle School over the month of October.
As a result, Spence said Gunn students were eager to try the new menu option, with the cafeteria running out of sushi by the end of lunch.
“In our first use at Gunn High, we produced 300 sushi rolls in less than two hours,” Spence said. “We did not want to waste the product and overproduce so we made a guess at 300 boxes. We sold out and could have provided more had we made them.”
In response, students’ opinions varied, and Gunn Sophomore Elijah Chheng-Leam said he wouldn’t choose the sushi again.
“It tasted really artificial and the texture is really bad,” Chheng-Leam said.
Chheng-Leam also said the distribution process could use fine tuning.
“It was really chaotic,” Chheng-Leam said. “ I saw people touch my sushi, and I touched other people’s sushi (due to the line being chaotic).”
Looking forward, Spence said students will have a variety of options to choose from.
“Sushi, CA rolls and cucumber rolls, will be added to school sites menus on a rotating basis,” Spence said. “Rolls will be prepared, cut, and boxed at the school site for lunch. Each box will have edamame, pickled ginger, soy sauce, and wasabi inside. The boxes of sushi are offered as a lunch entree.”
