Talk About Town: Should Students Be Able to Donate their Unused Lunch Items?

Schools nationwide will be serving healthier lunches this year.

Hartland Schools are no exception. Like other districts across the country, they will implement new guidelines set by the United States Department of Agriculture this year that aim to improve the quality of school lunches by increasing their nutritional value.

All Hartland School menus are available online.

“The good news is that the Hartland Schools Nutrition Department is ahead of the game as we have already made many of the required changes over the past few years.” said Teri Sincock Food Service Director in a letter to Hartland parents. "The biggest change this year is that students are required take a fruit or vegetable for it to be considered a meal, if they do not we must charge ala carte pricing for each item which will cost more."

Some parents, however, may have concerns that even though their child is taking a fruit or veggie to fulfill their meal requirement to prevent the higher ala cart pricing, what happens to the food that doesn't get eaten?

"Come help at lunch at least once during a school year," Hartland parent Nancy Braford said. "Not to just sit and have lunch with your child, but walk around, help kids open milk, go-gurt, fruit cups, peel oranges, etc. It's an eye-opening experience. Food waste is astounding, and it's not just the lunch purchased at school."

To help prevent large amounts of waste, two schools now have drop boxes where students can donate their sealed package of fruit or vegetable, according to Sincock. The items will be donated to the Gleaners Food Bank although not every menu item will be able to be donated.

"If you take eight spoonfuls of pineapple, that's going to get thrown away," Sincock said. "And none of the vegetables are individually wrapped, expect sometimes we get carrots from the goverment."

The two schools currently with food drop boxes are and  and Sincock said other schools are working to provide boxes. 

Hartland Patch wants to know: Should boxes be available at every school and should students be encouraged to donate uneaten items in their lunches? Or is that defeating the purpose of including fruits and vegetables in school lunches?

In this Thursday morning feature, we want to hear your opinions about certain topics making headlines. We'll be looking for your feedback in the comment section weekly. And we want to know what the Talk About Town is in your circles. Email Tatum at tatum.ryan@patch.com and it could be a topic of a future Talk About Town.