Boston 25 News: Program pairs students up with restaurants to have better school lunch meals
Boston 25 News by Wale Aliyu — March 1, 2022
BOSTON, Mass. — Think back to what your school lunch looked like, chances are it was nothing like what Cristo Rey Boston High served for school lunch Tuesday.
“Lemon chicken wings with salad, Italian dressing, and potatoes,” said junior Deanna Miles-Langaigne. “Very delectable.”
“Since I started, breakfast jumped up at least 20 kids,” said Phillip Thompson of Soulful Cuisine Catering.
The USDA reports more than 10% of households are food insecure and with a new pilot program, Cristo Rey Boston High, which serves only kids from under resourced families, wants to combat that. They partnered with the Shah Foundation and Stock Pot Malden who started matching restaurants with students at the beginning of the pandemic.
“We’ve been able to work with Boloco and Spinelli’s in East Boston to have students show up and say I want a local lunchbox special and walk out with a meal,” said Michael Madigan of the Shah Foundation.
But it’s now expanding from after school and summer meals to in-school, and Cristo Rey Boston High is the first school to get in line.
“I want to make sure that we are not just meeting the requirements,” said Cristo Rey Boston High School President Rosemary Powers. “I want to make sure they are getting the same kind of food that I would be serving my own kids. I want to be able to identify it on the plate and sometimes we have not been able to do that. Chili and a few corn chips is not a healthy nutritious meal.”
The students say they couldn’t be more thankful.
“There’s so much variety, we have more flavor in it,” said freshman Nailea Gonzalez. “It’s not bland.”
“I used to be very hungry and sometimes I have an attitude and my day would be bad and now I have a full meal and it is, it’s just amazing,” said Miles-Langaigne.
The program uses the same funds the USDA provides, nothing more. Things have gone so well since it began at Cristo Rey last week organizers say their goal is to expand the model throughout every school district in the state and hopefully the country.