Rockwood School District inspired OHS to incorporate different types of food for lunch after they made the change themself. 

“The way our kitchen and cafeteria is set up, we’re the only school [in Mehlville School District, MSD] that is able to do this,” said Robin Lacefield, Cafe Manager at OHS. This means that we are currently the only school in the MSD with lines other than the regular line. 

OHS has three new lunch lines, totaling at five; South of the Border (different kinds of Mexican food every day), Italian (a different pasta every day), Americana (the regular MSD lunch line), Asian (different kinds of Asian food every day), and the Cold Deli/Salad Bar. None of the new lines have the same thing every day so students have a variety of food to try. 

“I’m always pushing the food director to try new things,” Lacefield said.

Katie Gegg, Food Director of the Mehlville School District, is in charge of all food nutrition in the district. Gegg and her children reside in the Rockwood School District. She found out about her children’s school introducing these diverse lunch lines and loved the thought of it. Rockwood has the following lunch lines along with a regular line; Americana, Mexican, Asian, and Gourmet Deli. 

 “[Katie] thought it would be something she would like to implement here,” said Lacefield. The idea was actually brought up before Thanksgiving break had begun. It took a lot of time to plan and organize everything. Lacefield also had to work with OHS’ food distributor to see what they had to work with that would still fit in the government guidelines. Government restrictions have actually recently been let up, which allows us to try new things like this.

Lunch workers have noticed the growing amount of students trying new lines and are glad to see that they are wanting to try new things. “We would always love input from the students if they want to try something new, we are open to ideas.” Lacefield said.