Denver Public Schools food workers this week received a $150,000 grant to begin designing their own pay-for-performance evaluation system.
“Because everyone’s going to be doing scratch cooking now, that takes more work and more time, so we wanted to give the workers something back,” said Bernadette Jiron, president of the Denver Federation for Paraprofessionals and Nutrition Service Employees.
District schools started transitioning back to scratch cooking a year ago.
Currently, 100 schools serve such food. The rest of the schools will transition to the more healthful cooking over the next year.
When the idea of using a pay- for-performance system surfaced, so did word that the workers’ parent union, the American Federation for Teachers, was looking to hand out the grants.
DPS’s food workers evaluation system was the only project funded in Colorado by the AFT grants.
“I think what helped is how unique our idea was,” Jiron said. “But also, we are in a partnership with the district on this, and it will be a partnership with parents, the community and the workers throughout this project.”
Over the next year, the district and the union will hold focus groups with food workers and community members to help design an evaluation system.
Among the proposed factors to be considered are food sales and cafeteria health standards.
“We do need to make money first so we can share the profits,” said Leo Lesh, DPS director of nutrition services. “Maybe we would consider how much they can increase participation. Will more kids eat lunch?”
Since one aim of the scratch- cooking program is to combat childhood obesity, the evaluations will also consider the nutritional value of meals and participation in training programs.
Jiron said cafeteria workers want to be a part of the nutrition work.
“It’s about the value of their voice,” she said. “They didn’t have anything before, but these are loyal employees.”
Lesh said there are more than 700 food workers in the district, and the goal will be for all to participate.
After completion of the evaluation’s design and a pilot testing of the system, full implementation may begin in the 2013-14 school year.
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372 or yrobles@denverpost.com
