Two weeks ago, I went to a meeting for the Union County Food Coalition. While I cover a variety of meetings and groups in this job, I probably enjoy the food coalition meetings the most. The people who attend these meetings genuinely care about getting food to all people in Union County.
While the group focuses on a variety of populations, many of the action items focus on children, due to the easy access through schools. They have already accomplished a number of great things for area students, including helping create a food pantry at the middle school and the upcoming teacher kits for the preschool.
It is because of this passion they have that concerns over food quality at the schools were taken seriously.
School lunches traditionally have a bad reputation. Old cartoons depict a variety of mush placed on a partitioned tray. Children’s chapter books describe bland food and main dishes like “meatloaf surprise,” in which the surprise is what items make up the “meat.” Comparisons are made to prison food.
It is no wonder parents are cautious and have concerns about the food their children are being served. I think it’s great a parent expressed their concerns over the food their child is eating at school. As growing human beings, the food children consume is vitally important to their development and daily learning.
Luckily, it seems that these concerns from local parents have been unfounded. Recently, I got to tour the food facilities at the elementary/middle school and see what students were being served
I can’t help but think about my days of school lunches. Up until college, I went to private Christian schools. However, that didn’t mean I was getting incredible food. In grade school, we often had one, maybe two cooks depending on the year, to feed the 80-odd students in my K-8 building.
Lunches here weren’t bad, but they weren’t necessarily great either. Sides usually consisted of some canned vegetable and either canned fruit or the strangely salty apples cut in halves, along with a daily helping of buttered white bread. The main dish might be the classic square pizza slice, chicken nuggets or, if we were lucky, chicken noodle soup. Sometimes we had dessert, some baked goods brought by older ladies from the church.
My experience with school meals definitely got an upgrade in high school. My grade school was one of almost 20 feeder schools to a larger private Christian high school. In high school, there was more funding to provide good lunches for the students.
We definitely fit more into the stereotypical private school vibe when it came to our food. Along with the typical items of burgers, chicken fingers and fries, we also had a variety of other stations we could get food from. Some rotated depending on the day, such as an international food station or pasta bar, but there was always a salad bar and fresh fruit and vegetables packaged in house by the cooks.
While the Creston schools might not have this much variety, it appears to me the food available to students is just as fresh. Today’s front page article goes further into depth about what CCSD Food Service Director Teresa Clark does, but I think it’s clear she cares about the children she serves.
On the other side of that coin, I think that it’s important for parents and community members to make noise when they have concerns, especially concerns involving the future generations. While sometimes one might simply need to be more informed on the topic, there will also be times when change needs to happen. Change can not happen if no one points out the wrongs.