In America, schools have been serving lunch to students for almost 100 years. Created in the early 1930’s to create food security the meals have changed quite a bit, becoming more nutrient rich, diverse, and flavorful. Making these lunches isn’t easy, however, kitchen staff across the country work tirelessly to make these meals in high quantities while still fitting into government regulations. Here at Harwood it’s no different.
Talking to the boss- Erika Dolan
We recently spoke with Erika Dolan, Harwood’s food and nutrition Co-director, on what goes into making lunch here. Dolan has been working at Harwood for over 17 years and oversees all operations across the district, and manages the kitchen here at Harwood. She described the process of making lunch as “having a lot of steps behind the scenes, even before we get to prepare the food.” That includes, “ creating the menus, following the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) regulations, ordering the food, receiving the food, and putting it away. Then we can start to prepare it, with some items even being prepared one to two days ahead due to the quantity” stated Dolan.
Dolan said that over the past 17 years, any potential problems have come in phases that they have worked hard to overcome, but, “as of right now the biggest struggle is staff, even across the district.” Currently Harwood only employs two full-time kitchen staff members and one part-time sub making the lengthy process even more difficult, also accounting for the lack of the salad bar.
The response from the State
Recently the Governor of Vermont, Phil Scott, proposed a repeal of the universal school meals program, meaning kids would go back to paying for lunch as they did before Covid-19 hit. When asked about this, Dolan selflessly described how this repeal would affect middle class families who might not qualify for the free and reduced meals program set in place for low income families. She claimed that it would cost around $1,500 per student over the course of a year and for families with multiple children, those bills could be devastating. This may cause them to have to make decisions at home on whether they are able to afford school meals anymore. “I’m especially not looking forward to sending those emails home concerning missed bills” included Dolan.
Students share their thoughts
Commonground also spoke to several students on what they think of the lunches here at Harwood. “I don’t think they’ve been the best recently,” stated sophomore Levi Colon. In somewhat agreement, junior Caleb Brookens said, “I think it’s less about quality and more about portion size.” When asked about the proposed repeal, the students expressed that they would only care if it had an effect on the portion sizes, which it most likely would not.
As you can see, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the ever-changing school lunch program, and the staff asks you to keep in mind that they are doing all they can, and it’s not always a walk in the park.
