CLEVELAND — As the nation honors School Lunch Week, more and more school districts are trading in traditional meals for colorful, fresh produce and meat selections at lunchtime.
Andrea Helton, Director of Nutrition at Wellington Village Schools, says there is a push to establish more hunger-free schools. Helton says kids eat about half of their daily calorie intake at school. According to the School Nutrition Association (SNA) one in seven or 11 million children in America, live in households without consistent access to adequate food.
“We understand that in many cases, a school meal might be the only food that a child gets in a day. So, it's been tough to kind of see the struggle that's happening, but we're doing our best to make sure that we're filling in those gaps as a district,” Helton said.
The other side of school lunch is the cost. The universal meal plan, which provided every student free meals on behalf of federal dollars expired in June. Now, families who don’t qualify for free or reduced lunch or are close to the cutoff, are once again carrying that burden. Helton tells News 5, lunch is about $3.25 at the high school, $3.10 at the middle school, and $3 at the elementary school.
“I've been really urging Ohio State legislators to try to subsidize some of the cost of providing meals to students... It was a lot easier [and] a lot less steps that went into actually feeding the children when we had universal free meals,” Helton said. “We make sure that we feed students no matter what. “If someone comes in and they don't have a lunch, they don't have breakfast and they're hungry, we will feed them. We understand how important it is and how impactful it is for children to have nutrition.”
Helton tells us Wellington schools are participating in a bid with Ohio Schools Councils to get some local produce from nearby farms. The district also teamed up with Future Farmers of America offering a high school greenhouse class. Students are helping grow produce at school where it’s then served at lunch.
“It's more special. It's more meaningful than getting maybe a cucumber from a truck from California. The other thing is that our impact on the environment is also very important. So, we still need to consume food, but the ways that we do that, the decisions that we make can either harm the environment or help it,” Helton said.
Helton believes the community can help and has a major role in pushing to remove the lack of and privilege of quality food in local schools. She recommends speaking up at school board meetings, voting, and holding our local and state legislators accountable when advocating for proper school nutrition and resources.
