SCHOOL LUNCH CHANGES

School Lunch Services Undergoes Changes

BY ELIZABETH ALEXANDER AND MARGARET HOLMES

If you buy your lunch each day, you may have noticed a few changes from how it used to be. After lunch being free for all students last year, there is a bit of an adjustment with lunch now needing to be paid for again. Many students may have questions about why these changes went into effect. Luckily Brenda Boehm, Director of Food and Nutrition Services, was willing to give some answers. According to Boehm, there were many people out of work during Covid and so the USDA implemented meal waivers so that school meals would be free for anyone, regardless of income status. “However,” said Boehm, “That expired on June 30. Now everything went back to paid or PICTURE BY MARGARET HOLMES

reduced meals based on your income status”. In the future Boehm can possibly see free meals coming back to the Eden Prairie School District. “There’s a lot of talk in school nutrition about lobbying with congress and the Senate to get universal free meals,” says Boehm. However this doesn’t seem likely. “It’s not necessarily something that we’ll see in real life,” she adds. Regardless, the school nutrition department is hard at work revitalizing the school lunch program. Surprisingly, the number of people eating school lunch has not been negatively affected by the reinstatement of fees. Boehm remarks, “Our numbers are actually up and higher than they were last year” and that the number of extra purchases, for example extra sides and french fries, have also increased in sales since previous years.

In regards to sweet potato fries, a major source of strife in previous years, much of the student body would be pleased to hear that they are now a thing of the past. The reason for sweet potato fries, Boehm explains, is the National School Lunch Program’s ‘Color Wheel’ for the vegetables offered everyday. “One day a week you have to have a starchy vegetable, a red orange, which would be sweet potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, etc. a dark green, or something in another category, for example celery.” Boehm’s predecessor had decided to “take off fries on Monday and Thursday and substitute them with sweet potato fries and crunchy vegetables to fulfill those requirements.” This year the lunch department is offering french fries everyday in addition to the other food colors required by the National School Lunch Program. With all of these new changes, it’s clear EPHS’ lunch services are striving to improve the program for all.