By John Flood

joe hu/town crier Katie and Ben Weiderholt peruse the new selections for the Egan Junior High School hot lunch program.

For many local restaurant owners, cooking school lunches probably wasn’t part of their original business plan. But, as any business owner will tell you, opportunity comes in different guises.

So when school volunteers asked the local restaurants to cook healthful lunches for the Los Altos School District (LASD), restaurateurs took it as a way to create good will in the community and perhaps an unexpected opportunity to publicize their fare.

And when the state Legislature mandated stricter nutritional guidelines, the restaurants weren’t daunted by the tougher standards. Most of the restaurants were already using healthful ingredients. And those that didn’t meet the standards modified their ingredients or process.

Susan Klepper, hot lunch coordinator at Covington School, said that the criteria for selecting a restaurant are broad and will often go beyond nutritional guidelines. According to Klepper, Covington has found local restaurants creative in their menus and cooperative in conforming to the mandated hot lunch guidelines.

“The new guidelines are not a problem with sushi or teriyaki,” said Katie Chen, who, with her husband, John, owns Sumo’s Sushi-Boat in downtown Los Altos. “A lot of our items already met the requirements.”

The hot lunch program has become an important part of Sumo’s business. The restaurant serves Egan, Covington, Loyola and other Los Altos schools and, some days, prepares up to 600 meals, Chen said.

Along the way, Sumo’s has become a favorite among the children. The restaurant serves chicken teriyaki and vegetarian pot stickers every week.

“The kids crave it,” Chen said. “The kids are pros at ordering. We have more children than adults.”

As for the bottom line, Sumo’s doesn’t consider hot lunches a significant profit center.

“I’m not making a lot of money,” Chen said. “But it’s a way for people to get to know us. We do something good and good things come back.”

The Pasta Market on San Antonio Road has served hot lunches for LASD for 12 years. When the nutritional guidelines changed, the restaurant changed its source for chicken strips and went to zero transfats, said Bob Collins, owner of Pasta Market.

“We bake the chicken in a convection oven now instead of deep frying it,” Collins said. And it wasn’t difficult for the restaurant to adapt its menu in other areas.

“Pasta is within the guidelines, and our meatless sauce is low in fat and calories,” Collins said.

“We make a little money. It’s a form of good will for the schools, the kids and the community. And it gives back to the community,” he said.

Chef Chu’s has provided hot lunches to Los Altos schools for seven years.

Today the restaurant has about 17 people involved in the creation and delivery of up to 2,000 meals per week for seven Los Altos schools, said Larry Chu, owner of the restaurant.

“The cooking is simple, Chu said. “It’s the putting together (of each meal) that is a lot of work. We have to monitor it closely when there are many deliveries.” While the profit might be less, the good will extended makes it worthwhile.

“Everybody feels good about it. It’s a good deed,” Chu said. “We give back to the community and it benefits the restaurant. Kids bring their parents in.”

Café Bombay on El Camino provides hot lunches for Loyola and Egan this year. It provided lunches to Covington in 2005 but hasn’t been contacted for 2006. It was the first Indian restaurant selected for the hot lunch program, said Rahul Mydin, owner.

“By the time you package it, we break even,” Mydin said. “We get up really early (to cook) for this. It takes time to cook and package. But it’s a good cause.”

Mydin was impressed with the program and the way the coordinators organized it.

“Their nutritionist checked with our suppliers,” Mydin said. “They are strict.”

Applewood Pizza had provided hot lunches to Covington and Loyola schools, but it hasn’t been contacted to participate this year.

“We meet those requirements (the state nutrition guidelines),” said Paul Goswamy, owner of Applewood. “We prepare our food fresh and we have very high quality food.”

“It’s not really profitable. They (the hot lunch committees) want everything cheap,” Goswamy said. “There’s too much labor consumed and it’s not profitable like a regular restaurant, and it’s hard to satisfy them.”

Other issues affecting the Applewood hot lunch service.

People change on their committees,” Goswamy said.