1
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I thought DOD stood for something else, but
you're saying it's definitely Department o...

2
00:00:04,799 --> 00:00:05,299
Yeah.

3
00:00:05,299 --> 00:00:05,799
Yeah.

4
00:00:05,799 --> 00:00:07,000
Who mandates this?

5
00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:09,599
Uh, the state and the federal government?

6
00:00:09,599 --> 00:00:10,099
Yes.

7
00:00:10,099 --> 00:00:12,000
We purchase the food items from them.

8
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Mandates who you buy food from?

9
00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:14,500
Yeah.

10
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They give us the funding.

11
00:00:15,500 --> 00:00:16,000
Yeah.

12
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They tell us what about the food.

13
00:00:17,500 --> 00:00:18,000
Yeah.

14
00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:21,500
And then they negotiate the contracts with
the providers.

15
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That's not okay.

16
00:00:22,500 --> 00:00:23,000
That's not for example.

17
00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:24,000
I did not know that.

18
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Oh yeah.

19
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So deeply.

20
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They would buy it and say, wait, there's some
money that we have to use for those products.

21
00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:35,000
So they'll give us hundreds of thousands of
dollars, but we can only spend it in their...

22
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:42,000
So when you say their channels, can I ask,
are there specific companies that you're...

23
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Oh, we purchase through DOD.

24
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They have their own ordering guide.

25
00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:46,500
Ah.

26
00:00:46,500 --> 00:00:52,000
And we purchase through them, but they work
out the contracts throughout the country.

27
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General mills are different.

28
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Yeah.

29
00:00:53,500 --> 00:00:54,000
Yeah.

30
00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:01,000
They work out those contracts and it varies
each year who gets those contracts, but we...

31
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So if we come across a consistent issue, we
can reduce the order.

32
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It goes back to them.

33
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We get the credit.

34
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:11,000
We can spend it again with them in hopes that
the quality is better when it comes back.

35
00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:12,000
That's what happened with bananas.

36
00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:18,000
When you asked about bananas, they were
consistently coming in completely green to...

37
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Even after like we had kept a case in our
warehouse for two weeks and it did not ripen.

38
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It was starchy and hard.

39
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And so we sent all the cases back and then no
longer took bananas off the menu entirely...

40
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I guarantee quality.

41
00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,000
And you have no choice but to order them
through there.

42
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:38,000
So it's bananas or no bananas.

43
00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:39,000
Wow.

44
00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:45,000
But that's the thing, Francis, like just
today, they have to put it on their plate ...

45
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So you just want to eat the tater tots, but
you're not going to eat this burger that y...

46
00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,000
And you're like, please just give me the
tater tots.

47
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You have to put it on your plate.

48
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Otherwise, we won't get reimbursed.

49
00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:59,000
But no one's tracking the garbage can to see
what's actually going in there.

50
00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:02,000
That's true for every public school district.

51
00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:10,000
Nutrition services do bring money and they're
one of the only revenue generating...

52
00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:17,000
It seems to me like the people who are on the
floor, who are trying to do the right thin...

53
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They're seeing the food, they're preparing
the food, and they really want the best th...

54
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:22,000
Which is the same as what we want.

55
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Then if the bananas are no good and you guys
send those back, then there's no bananas f...

56
00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:31,000
And that sucks for you guys and it sucks for
us and it sucks for the kids.

57
00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:45,000
And in the same respect, if the Department of
Defense is supplying the food and they are...

58
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Right.

59
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Then they are incentivized to get the lowest
quality at the highest, you know, price.

60
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So then the more processed, the better for
them.

61
00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:06,000
So again, it seems like the only options you
guys have are the things that are...

62
00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:08,000
And so your options are limited.

63
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:17,000
So then I guess what my main question is
after hearing all of this, what are the...

64
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Like, can we make different recipes,
different options, you know, or is this li...

65
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And so we should do this or we should send
kids to school with their lunches if we do...