PARISHVILLE, New York (WWNY) – Last year, parents in the Parishville-Hopkinton Central School District said the school lunches were “lacking” and they posted pictures to prove it. It’s a new school year and a new school lunch program is getting high marks.
You may remember last year members of the community were angered by the school lunches provided by the Parishville-Hopkinton School District.
A Facebook post from last school year showed a lunch that parents said had small quantities and did not provide enough nutrition to help keep students full throughout the day.
The district’s new superintendent says the district was part of a consortium last year that many school districts in the county were a part of.
“When we were part of the consortium, all districts would have similar menus every day. So everything was set well in advance and when you’re trying to distribute to a large scale, you have no choice but to do that,” said Steven Coffin, Parishville-Hopkinton Central superintendent.
This year, the school district decided to part ways and start a different lunch program of its own.
One of the ways in which the lunch program has been so successful is by reaching out to local farm markets.
This makes the Parishville-Hopkinton one of the first schools in St. Lawrence County to practice a farm-to-table method.
“I think every school should be doing this. I think it’s really important to create that sustainability within our own community and to also feed the kids whole foods. That is super important because, for a lot of kids, this is the only food they get so we want it to be nutrient dense and filling,” said Taylor Harper, Parishville-Hopkinton school lunch manager.
The school district is planning on reaching out to more local farms within the coming weeks to increase the variety of foods that are prepared for developing healthy minds.
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