Readers React: STMA Student Body, Parents Discuss School Lunch Issue

After St. Michael Patch published an article about school lunch issues, readers took to the comment stream to express their opinions with the perceived food quality problem that St. Michael-Albertville School District is facing.

Read: School Lunches at Center of St. Michael-Albertville School Board Discussion

One reader, who was identified as “ said that while nutritional requirements come from the government, the district is forgetting that students aren’t eating the food.

I love fruit, but quality fruit. It's hard to find a banana that is ripe, and apples that aren't bruised. It may be government required to supply this food, I understand that, but the food supplied isn't prepared the best.

Senior at STMA agreed that the school has a quality problem, noting that sweet potato fries are often “tasteless” and food is cold or barely warm.

...whether the meals are "healthier" the student body ends up being underfed and malnourished which then ends up harming their studies and sports ability...in the bags of packaged food given to starving children in foreign nations there is relatively 2000 calories in just the rice, soy, and vegetable mix yet the student body of STMA, a highly active school, is not given even a thousand.

The comparison made to starving children in “foreign nations” angered Meghan Gutzwiller, who suggested that students who don’t like the school food can pack their own lunch.

...teens have the ability to pack their own lunch or snacks if they dislike their school lunch option...or they could go through appropriate channels to respectfully voice their opinion. It's time for some personal responsibility in lieu of whining about unappetizing fries!

The school board met on Monday, Mar. 4, at the St. Michael-Albertville Middle School West. St. Michael Patch contacted Dolores Helgeson, director of the food service program for St. Michael-Albertville School District No. 885. Stay with Patch as we follow this issue.

To see all the comments made about the Patch article, click here.