Food Service keeps cooking, offers free food

One look at the taped off seats in the cafeteria shows everyone that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the way students get meals this year. District Food Service Director Ms. Sharon Adami discussed some of those changes.

“We wanted to provide food for all the students, but safety had to be the first concern,” said Ms. Adami.

High school students are still using the pin pad, but Ms. Adami said that students should have scanner cards soon. After they arrive, the check out process will be touch free. The district already uses scanners in the middle school.

The pin pads are currently covered with “Safe Tape,” which Ms. Adami said disinfects automatically after it is touched.

According to the information on the school district’s website, a Free Food Program was put in effect on Sept. 8. Free breakfast and lunch are offered to all students regardless of their eligibility status or instructional model.

This year the Free Food Program became available to the district on Sept. 7, according to Ms. Adami, who also said it might be extended to the end of this year. If it does not get extended, then all the students will go back to the way they were paying for meals in previous years, she added.

The district implemented the program at the end of last year as a result of a federal waiver. Milton received it sooner than other schools because the district applied for it very early, said Ms. Adami.

The USDA did a nationwide approval for the extended Free Food Program; however, the Food Service has not yet received the official word from the PA Department of Education, according to Ms. Adami. The Food Service has to wait until they get the official word before they announce the extension for the rest of the year to families, she explained.

Regardless of the free meal approval, families still need to complete the free lunch application online for this school year, said Ms. Adami. This information is used to apply for grants and other programs for students, she added.

Because students are eating in locations throughout the school, the food service is using all disposable products, said Ms. Adami. She added that she tried to get more environmentally friendly products, like paper boats, to cut down on waste.

Also due to COVID-19, the food service is not able to get as much stock of products, so they run out more often and have to substitute them, said Ms. Adami. For example, they might run out of lattice fries so they will have to substitute then with stealth fries, said Ms. Adami.

With the time constraint it is very hard to get students through the deli line, so it was taken out. It takes more time to get students through the line, explained Ms. Adami. The food service is a trying to fit the line back in, but staff is stretched and working with the time limit is hard, said Ms. Adami.

The deli line opened back up on Oct. 19 for high school students. High school students now have the choice of going through the deli line to get sandwiches or wraps, or going through the regular main line.

Ice cream was also removed because students are unable to serve themselves and there was not enough room, Ms. Adami explained.

Senior Tyler Force discussed his experiences with the school’s Food Service this year. Tyler said his favorite change is that lunch is now free.

“I love free stuff; it makes it taste better,” said Tyler. He also said he enjoys that soup has lids now, which makes it easier to carry it around.

Tyler said he feels the trays are too small and flimsy. Also, the lines are too long, he added