Vermilion Parish students complaining about bland taste of food in cafeteria

Two weeks into the new school year, the biggest complaint in Vermilion Parish is not Common Core, it’s about the food being served in the cafeteria.
From day one, students noticed how bland tasting the food is and how the taste is not getting any better.
Some students are bringing their own seasoning and applying it to their food.
School Board members, principals and even superintendent Jerome Puyau are receiving complaints about the food.
Last year the biggest complaint was portion size. This year, along with portion size, the biggest complaint is taste.
The school board members are getting earful from parents. It’s common to hear words like “it’s horrible” or “there is no taste.”
School Board President Chris Gautreaux is tired of getting complaints and wanted to know if there is anything the School Board can do to make the food taste better.
He received a phone call from someone who works in a school cafeteria, who noticed the large amount of food being thrown away each day.
“They used to throwaway 12 garbage bags of food and now they are throwing away 22 bags each day,” said Gautreaux. “The kids are going home hungry. There are cafeteria managers who may be retiring because they feel they are not appreciated. They hear the food taste nasty, so they feel they are not doing their job.”
What the school board members have learned is that it is not the cafeteria managers fault about the taste of the food. It began four years ago with first lady Michelle Obama pushing for schools to serve healthier meals to school children.
Schools are now cutting out the salt, using whole grain and serving fresh fruit and vegetables.
The Vermilion Parish School System receives $3 million a year from the federal government to help fund its nutrition program. Because it gets money from the federal government, it also has to listen to the federal government on how to prepare meals for students.
It is not doing the school system any good if children are throwing away the food and filling up garbage bags with food, Gautreaux added. He also said the number of lunches being served in schools are going down because more and more students are bringing their own lunch and not eating school food.
Puyau has tried the food and said, “There is no taste. It is bland. Kids don’t eat it. This is not because of our cafeteria workers. We live in south Louisiana where there is a culture of spices and good food.”
Puyau said in the near future Civics students in each school will begin walking around with a petition for students to sign in protest of the food. The petition will be sent to Michelle Obama in Washington D.C.
In the meantime, he said cafeteria managers are working to create meals that have taste.