by Brock Fortman

In June of this year, President Biden signed “The Keep Kids Fed Act” which has affected the cost of school lunches within schools throughout the country. Previously the cost of school lunches was waived for all students during the pandemic.

When school lunch became universally free for all students across the country, the average amount of school lunches served in the district went up to over 400 in comparison to 250 – 300 a day. The district kitchens cut back on variety and made meals more robust. “Everything was put together in such a way where you guys could pick it up and go,” said Jennifer Hoehn, the food service General Manager.

The high school kitchen dealt with labor shortages and supply chain issues that affected the variety and type of food students were receiving for lunch. The supply chain issues made it difficult to receive certain produce, so distributors sent something different that was similar to the original order. “There were times where we wouldn’t know what we would serve the food in,” said Hoehn as a result of supply chain issues. They resorted to bags, other containers, or paper boats. Kitchen staff improvised when they made their own pizza in place of the pizza they couldn’t get for 2 months. “It was like we were a pizza place,” said Head Cook Denise Aguila. The kitchen staff encourages students to provide input to them to better help them correlate to the students wants and needs for school lunch.