Bon appétit?
An upstate New York school lunch has prompted outrage after a father shared a photo of his son’s meager cafeteria offerings.
Chris Vangellow, whose children attend the Parishville-Hopkinton Central School District, shared a photo to Facebook blasting the unsavory-looking meal, which consisted of four small chicken nuggets, a few unappetizing carrots and a small side of white rice.
“I think the Parishville School Lunches might be a bit lacking a bit. (E)ven for a kid that isn’t 6’5 like Ash. If this was a game day I don’t think any of the team would be getting enough energy from something like this,” Vangellow
The father of four from Potsdam claimed that one of his other kids didn’t have any “dry tasteless carrots” because none were apparently available when he arrived later.
He said his kids “have been complaining that since the lunches are now free for everyone, the portions have dropped.”
“I got this photo today. It really is ridiculous. Don’t come at me with the ‘you get what you pay for’ or ‘just send them with food’ crap either,” he wrote.
“Yeah we can do that and sometimes the kids do choose to bring something from home or will buy extra lunch to get more in them to get them through a day,” Vangellow continued.
“The problem is that not all families can do that. We don’t live in a very rich area. Some kids may not get much or anything when at home and this is what they have to survive on,” he added.
Hundreds of users have dished out critical comments in response to the post.
“Shameful! You need to go to the school board and show them this photo and issue a complaint!” one user wrote.
“That is crazy you can make lots of meals cheap that kids love get back to the basic stop taking the easy way out!!!! that looks terrible,” another said.
One woman wrote: “Well, I definitely worked in food service for 9 years. I can tell you that the chicken that was served was not fresh whatsoever. Yikes.”
Vangellow told Fox News that his 16-year-old son has been sending him photos of the slim offerings for the past few months.
“He started complaining that lunch was ‘not enough,’” Vangellow told the news outlet. “One of my other kids also sent me the same picture and I knew they had a game coming up. I was thinking, ‘If there’s kids playing basketball, this is not enough for him.”
In response to the backlash, schools Superintendent William Collins posted a public message on the district’s website.
“This week a concerned parent’s Facebook post about Parishville-Hopkinton school lunches went viral. The concerns expressed clearly resonated with students and parents as evidenced by the number of comments and shares,” he wrote.
“In fairness to the cafeteria, students are allowed one more serving of fruits or vegetables and one additional nugget than appeared in the photograph; however, this doesn’t alter the message that many students and parents are dissatisfied with school lunches,” Collins continued.
“The Cafeteria Manager and I are creating a group to address the dissatisfaction with school meals. In addition to the Cafeteria Manager and me, this working group will be made up of concerned students (4) and parents (4) along with a representative from the Wellness Committee,” he wrote.
“This group will explore ways to make school meals more appetizing while still meeting the strict USDA requirements of the National School Lunch Program,” Collins added.
The schools chief claimed that the school contracts through the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services for its food.
“We fall under the same nutritional guidelines as every public school in the nation, so there are limitations on just how varied school lunches can be from one school to another,” Collins told Fox News.
“Some of the lunches in the photos are misleading because they show incomplete serving sizes that do not contain all of the choices available to students going through the lunch line; however, it is clear that many students and parents would like to see a change.”
Vangellow told the network that he and his son have signed up to be part of Collins’ group, “Reimagining School Lunches.”