Brown Paper Bag Lunches!

Olivia Wilt, Reporter|December 7, 2020

A pandemic has struck the world; this changed how students in Altoona Junior High School have lunch today, and will keep changing it in the future. Brown bagged lunches have been popular for school lunches for many years. Since Oct. 12, 2020, bagged lunches have been a more beneficial way to serve students in the school cafeteria. 

 

Students went back to a  virtual educational model on Dec.1, 2020. This drastic change has made it more difficult for the lunch staff to prepare lunches for students.

Bagged lunches! Lunch ladies prepared cold, grab and go lunch options for hungry students up. Their “cold lunches”  ready to be packed and shipped to the front of the cafeteria for student pick up.”I’m going to be honest. It is more work trying to put all the food groups equally into the meals,” Angie Fishier said.

Angelita Fisher, Metz Assistant Manager at AAJHS and elementary schools, has discovered a way to prepare lunches for the kids at their homes. Starting Wed. 2,2020 students can pick up lunches at the school for their homes. This is a way to give food to students without the risk of getting ill. This allows the opportunity for the lunch ladies to specifically place items from all the food groups into a brown bag for a complete, healthy and safe lunch.

 

 

 

Hybrid learning has affected the way classmates eat today. Not only do students have to watch out for Covid-19 and other illnesses, they also need to have a healthy, filling meal. Taking extra precautions, lunch ladies wear masks, hair nets, gloves and aprons while preparing meals. Additionally, the ladies working in the cafeteria constantly wash hands, switch out gloves, and sanitize.  According to the U.S Department of Agriculture, meals can stay in a brown paper bag under two hours (Keeping “Bag” Lunches Safe). This provides details on how bagged lunches are fresh and clean bites to eat.

 

Lunches in the school district are free due to the pandemic in today’s society. Bagged lunches give less stress on guardians trying to provide for their children at home. As an additional help to feeding children, student may also acquire breakfast from the school as well.

Here are the details according to the the AASD website, “Five breakfast and five lunch meals will be provided for each child age 18 and under. Food will be distributed on Wednesday each week. A new order form will need to be submitted each week.This form will be open for orders from 8:00 am on December 7th through 10 am on December 11th. Orders cannot be accepted after 10 am on December 11th.Meals will be available for pick up at the location indicated on your order form between 11 am and 1 pm on December 16th. The meals in this program are free as sponsored by the USDA and the Summer Food Service Program.”

 

Bagged lunches is a change in many students’ usual schedule, but it satisfies and eliminates drawbacks.