Students to See Lunch Menu Changes in Lakeland Schools
Students at Lakeland Copper Beech Middle School salivating over hand stretched Stromboli will have to find another cafeteria favorite this year as several changes have been made in the district’s food service program.
“There’s going to be a lot of changes,” said Food Service Director Jo-Anne Ricapito. “The changes will be implemented over the next 10 to 12 years. We do plan to get kids more involved so they’re aware of what’s going on.”
The changes being made are a result of the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, spearheaded by First Lady Michelle Obama, as an initiative to try to combat the increase in child obesity, along with getting a better handle on food service programs in public schools.
“The whole concept of this is to get kids to eat more fruits and vegetables,” Ricapito recently told the Lakeland Board of Education. “They don’t have to take anything but at least one fruit or vegetable.”
At Lakeland and Walter Panas high schools, Stromboli will still be offered but only a la carte for $2.50, not as a reimbursable meal. There will also be a full service deli bar available a la carte for $3.50.
“There’s no way the Stromboli’s meet the guidelines,” Ricapito explained about meals the district gets reimbursed from the federal government. “I know the kids will be disappointed.”
Some portion sizes will also be changing. For example, the hamburgers will be smaller, juices will be reduced from six ounces to four ounces, and chicken in the popular Cesar salad will be cut from four ounces to two ounces.
Next year, all flour used to make pizza, which Lakeland serves more than 100,000 reimbursable meals annually, has to be whole wheat.
“We will see in the numbers a decrease at the high school level because we’ll have a la carte but it doesn’t mean we’ll have a decrease in revenue, and that’s how we have to look at the program,” Ricapito said. “We will constantly readjust. We have to look at it in dollars and cents.”
The cost of a meal in the elementary schools is increasing from $2.25 to $2.30. Lakeland’s food service program is self-sufficient. At the end of June, the program had a fund balance of $880,000.
School board member Steve Korn said he had a problem with the federal government telling school districts what to charge for meals.
“I believe we have no choice but to follow this but it doesn’t mean we like it,” he said. “The thought of the federal government dictating price is crazy.”
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/