FORT THOMAS, Ohio — Students at Highlands High School can get fries with their meal anytime they want after Fort Thomas Independent Schools dropped out of the federal meals program this year.
Vegetables and fruits are on the menu too, and the choice of what to eat is up to students with a little nudge of advice from school cafeteria workers, said Gina Sawma, food and nutrition director for Fort Thomas Independent Schools.
The district opted out of the federal meals program and lost $260,000 in associated funding this summer, according to an Aug. 9 Enquirer article. Interest in eating the school cafeteria food had been waning as stricter federal meals standards took effect in recent years, Sawma said. Packed lunches and Highlands High’s status as the last public school in Kentucky where students can leave for lunch contributed to the downturn in meals, she said.
In the two years before dropping the federal program, the district lost 19,000 meals or 166 per day than it served in 2011, she said. The changes were due to the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 – implemented in 2012, Sawma said.
For instance, cheese and the district’s homemade croutons had to be left off the salad bar at the middle school and high school because of increasingly strict federal nutrition guidelines, she said. Cheese and croutons are back this year, she said. Students are allowed to get a sprinkle and not gobs of cheese, so the offerings are still nutritious, she said.
“At my middle school, the salad bar consumption was cut in half,” Sawma said. “This year, the kids are back to eating the salad.”
Also, prices on food haven’t increased this year, and when students want more fruits and vegetables they’re never turned down, she said.
Cake, which used to have to be served