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Sarasota News Leader October 12, 2012 "We try to keep people's dignity through the process," she added, "and if they are needy, we want them to call." "Unfortunately, when the real estate market collapsed, a lot of families discovered they needed our services," said Beverly Girard, di- rector of Food and Nutrition Services. "A lot of people don't know this," Girard said, "but our Title I designation is based on the free and reduced-meal program." The Title I program, established in the 1960s and now part of the No Child Left Behind Act, distributes federal funds to each coun- ty and each school to support services for low-income children. Therefore, Girard point- ed out, the meal numbers are calculated care- fully. "It's based on house- hold size and income, a sliding scale," Girard added of the Title 1 ser- vices. The number is an im- portant facet of the school budget process. Try to imagine running a restaurant that serves more than 30,000 lunches a day, along with breakfast. That is essentially what Girard and her staff do, but the whole process is moni- tored and approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Moreover, Beverly Girard. Photo by Scott Proffitt Page 15 the customers are children, known for being finicky eaters. Welcome to Girard's world — and she handles the whole thing with a charm and aplomb you might find in the proprietor of a very fancy, expensive restaurant. As the director of Food and Nutrition Services for the school system, Girard has converted the operation from a financial burden that was $500,000 over budget to a self-supporting en- terprise that she says she runs like a business. The fact that she has an MBA helps, she says, but her concerns are many. After several years of effort, she was able to implement a "Farm to School" program that buys fruits and vegetables directly from local farmers for the stu- dents' meals. "The produce is fresher now, and we've seen a 60% in- crease in fresh fruit and vegetables in a four-year period," Gi- rard added. She also is somewhat of a celebrity among chocolate milk afi- cionados, having persuaded a regional farmer to decrease the amount of sug- ar in the chocolate milk he supplies to the schools. The stu- dents didn't even no- tice, she pointed out, adding, "The farmer,