Lakeside Union School District Child Nutrition Director Sally Spiro said that nutrition department staff members have voluntarily given up their spring break to hand out meals at the district office to students who turn up for lunch.
Many of those lunches include food donated by the Barona Band of Mission Indians.
In a statement, Barona said the donations are helping supply the Lakeside United School District with enough fruits, vegetables, dairy products and more to feed 1,000 people a day.
Spero confirmed that number, then explained when Barona made the decision to temporarily close their restaurants and casinos to prevent the spread of COVID-19, they informally reached out to see if the food could be utilized by families in the school district.
“Here in the school district, the lunch program has to pay for itself. We do that through sales of meals but we don’t make any money and hopefully, we don’t lose any money along the way. Right now, with campuses closed, we’re losing thousands of dollars every day and we’re still paying our staff, whether we serve 500 meals or 2,000 meals,” Spero said.
According to Spero, many of those meals include dishes that are not typically found on a school lunch menu because truck loads of food are being donated by the Barona Band of Mission Indians.
She said that while the donated food has been a huge help to the district, she has been entertained by watching school district chefs transform casino food into school lunches.
“We have two chefs that work for Lakeside schools and if there is one thing chefs love, it is to be given a challenge. They sent down food that would never appear on a school menu like fresh pineapples and fresh cantaloupe that is just too pricey for a school budget. It has been such a treat to see those go out to the kids. Lo mein was turned into stir fry, gallons of milk were turned into soups and pudding,” Spero said.
The nutritionist said the cafeteria is working hard to keep meal standards up in difficult times but also says there are some fun surprises that have come out of keeping on with meals through spring break.
“They sent down a ton of fresh eggs in the shell; we usually get the frozen liquid that comes in huge packages for scrambled eggs or whatever. Well, it would take forever to crack open all those eggs but our chefs figured out a way to dye them so in a few days all the families who are coming for the food area are going to get dyed Easter eggs as a surprise,” Spero said.
Spero said she is grateful for all the donations because they help her department keep up meal standards.
“These are difficult times and we want people to know we care about the kids so much,” Spero said.
