<p>Salad bars are slated to make their return to Monterey Peninsula schools.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Due to the increased workload on cafeteria workers, officials with the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District pulled out the salad bars in their schools about two weeks before the school year ended, until administrators and workers reached an agreement, according to the Monterey Peninsula.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"If we're only serving 125 kids, there's enough hours," said Robert Cummings, chapter president of the California Schools Employee Association, which represents food workers. "But at Del Rey Woods, Highland and King there are many kids, and the workers were having a hard time prepping the salad bar, so they were working through their breaks and lunch."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"Our intention is that by the beginning of 2013-14 we will have all the salad bars in place and rolling in all of our elementary schools," said Assistant Superintendent of Business Service Dan Albert. "We're meeting with union in July to discuss the added workload. We are very confident we'll have the salad bars ready to go at the beginning of the year."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">In September, Dole Food Co. donated five salad bars to MPUSD, as part of the Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools" initiative. Roughly 2,679 salad bars have been distributed under the program.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Dole spokesman Marty Ordman said he had not heard of similar issues. The company has donated about 100 salad bars in the past few years.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"There's an application process that the schools go through, and part of the process is that (the schools) have to have the logistics covered," Ordman said. "We realize that's a lot of logistic hurdles. When you put in a salad bar, you need to get the food out there, it needs to be chopped, you need to talk to vendors to make sure you can stack it. ... I know for some schools it's too much of a burden, but the application tries to vet that out."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Salinas City Elementary has had salad bars since 2006 and has not had similar issues. Each school added three hours of labor when the salad bars came in. Giving workers plenty of time to cut the vegetables, watch over the salad bar while children are in line so the trays can be replenished, and clean up.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"Funding is not a problem," Albert said. "It's important that we make sure our employees have enough time to prepare the food, put it on the tray and give it to the students. We just need to talk to the union to agree with the number of hours that are needed. That's what negotiations are all about."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_23524741/monterey-peninsula-schools-will-see-salad-bars-again?source=most_viewed" target="_new">Salad Bars</a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
