Styrofoam is out and plastic trays are back at Sunset Lake, Tobey and Indian Lake schools in Vicksburg.
Vicksburg Community Schools Food Service Director Sarah Dyer said the switch to hard-plastic trays marks their first use in the district’s three elementary schools since before COVID.
More than three months into the current school year and Dyer said so far there are no regrets.
“With COVID, we made the switch to disposable trays and then when (state-supported) free meals came out after COVID, we stuck with disposable because that saves on staffing time and for other reasons,” Dyer said. “So, we made the switch back to plastic this year, even though we didn’t really add a lot more staffing, we just thought it was the right thing to do and we’re making it happen.”
Dyer said an appeal from Indian Lake counselor Heather Richeson was a tipping point in whether to discontinue with Styrofoam. Dyer said Richeson inquired a year ago about re-introducing plastic lunch trays at Indian Lake.
Though the request was not accommodated last year, it did set in motion the circumstances that have led to plastic trays this year at the elementary buildings.
Aside from Richeson’s request, Dyer said Indian Lake has an inordinately active student council-led recycling program. Many of its members, too, had inquired about phasing out Styrofoam.
She laughed while sharing an anecdote about the decrease in cafeteria refuse.
“Well, when I talked to our maintenance and custodial supervisor, he said there’s still plenty of trash out there,” Dyer said. “I told him, ‘You can’t blame us anymore … it’s not because of us.’”
A 12-year VCS employee, Dyer said there was no cost to making the switch, as the plastic trays were kept in storage and a pass-thru window into the kitchen was already in place, as was equipment necessary to rinse and wash trays.
With breakfast and lunch available at no charge to all elementary students, Dyer said participation in both meals is considerably higher than before COVID. As a result, the demand on staff time is greater, but, as Dyer noted, kitchen staff at the three elementary buildings are keeping pace.
Though she didn’t have figures off the top of her head, Dyer confirmed there is a cost savings to not purchasing Styrofoam in such significant quantities.
Another upside to plastic trays? Dyer said no question they are sturdier and less prone to slipping out of a student’s hand compared to Styrofoam.
Styrofoam trays are still used, albeit under certain and rare circumstances, she noted.
During her annual report to Vicksburg Board of Education members Nov. 10, Dyer also mentioned the overwhelming reception to Smart Mouth Pizza, an item introduced to the high school last year and expanded to the middle school this year.
“It’s a very high-quality product that meets all the nutrition guidelines that we have to follow, it’s 100 percent whole-grain and there’s no sugar, but it doesn’t taste like a lot of the other whole-grain products we also serve,” Dyer said. “It’s almost as good as a Pizza Hut’s Pan Pizza, it definitely reminds me of that.”
She said the dough arrives frozen and in the shape of a puck. It requires thawing overnight, then kitchen staff adds sauce, cheese and toppings. Dyer said kitchen staff sometimes include ingredients other than pepperoni. Other toppings used on occasion include sausage, vegetable, BBQ chicken and chicken-bacon ranch.
Dyer said 3,801 pizzas were served at the middle school in September and she estimated middle school kitchen staff will serve a total of about 32,000 Smart Mouth pizzas this academic year.
District-wide, Vicksburg Community Schools kitchen staff serves about 1,800 lunches a day and approximately 1,300 breakfasts daily.
Meanwhile, Dyer said another popular item her department serves is whole-grain donuts, which are also low in sugar.
Also, Dyer said serving lines at all five buildings are new and have proven to be more efficient than the previous set-up.
