Lynn school officials discuss solutions for leftover food

LYNN – Figuring out the best way to use leftover school lunches is not yet a done deal, but the School Department and the School Committee are working on a district-wide plan to make it happen.”We’re working to find out how different schools handle it then we’ll implement something district-wide,” said School Committee member Charlie Gallo, who is chair of the policy subcommittee.Ward 2 City Councilor Richard Colucci started the debate in October when he filed a council order asking the School Committee to figure out how to safely give away leftover lunches rather than throw them away. He said he had received phone calls from a few parents and had witnessed himself items like fresh fruit being tossed in the trash following lunch. His idea was to let students take unopened or unused pre-packaged food, such as milk, yogurt or fruit, home or donate it to a food pantry.School Committee member Donna Coppola said the reality is many of their kids want seconds but are often told no due to state regulations.”80 percent of our kids are on free and reduced lunch, my suggestion is to allow parents to come after school and take the food,” she said.Gallo said Coppola’s reaction was essentially the consensus among committee members, to offer the food to students and their parents rather than donate it to a food pantry but exactly how to do it is still being explored.Gallo and Coppola both said some schools already have such programs and they are trying to determine which would work best district-wide.”Some schools have a sharing table,” Coppola said. “They go through the line but if they don’t want their fruit or vegetables (that come in little individual packages) or milk they can put it on the sharing table and another child can take it.”When Brian Fay was principal at Cobbet he instituted what he called a “no thank you” table,” which worked just as Coppola described. He said it was simple and effective, and sent the right message.”We certainly didn’t want to send the message that we were throwing food away,” he said.He is looking into the possibility of introducing a similar program at Callahan where he is now principal.”I think it’s an excellent idea,” Coppola said. “The food is used immediately, and if a child is still hungry he/she will have a second fruit or milk.”Not every elementary school has a cafeteria, however, which could pose an accessibility problem. Colucci said distributing leftovers on the middle and high school level would be a whole other issue as well because elementary lunches are brought in but secondary school lunches are cooked at the schools.”We’re working on a plan for the junior high and high schools,” he said. “But this is good, let the parents take the food, it’s better than the barrel.”