HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – Parents of students at Grissom High School are shocked after what they saw being served to their children for lunch.
The parents reached out to News 19 in search of a direct answer from the Huntsville City School’s district nutritional director. They said were stunned when one of them received a photo of what was on a tray for a child to eat for lunch.
The tray consisted of Doritos, meat and beans, leaving them completely unaware of what was being served. According to nutritional guidelines, Huntsville City Schools must offer five components; meats/meat alternates, grains, fruits, vegetables and fluid milk.
The child nutritional director Henry Ward explains what exactly is on the tray.
“What you saw in the tray is the meal item that’s on the menu. What you saw are the components that are separated. Most of the students want to combine their components together especially if we are doing nacho chips or nacho cheese and chips with meat and we’ll usually separate it,” said Ward.
Parents complained that Doritos in this meal is not acceptable within those nutritional guidelines regardless of the flavor or grain. Nutritional expert Margaret Marshall tells News 19, “Yes, Doritos are bad for you. They are loaded with artificial flavors, chemicals, GMOs, and many other health hazards.”
“All of our Doritos are low fat, and all of our chips are baked. We also serve baked Lays and baked Cheetos. We don’t serve the traditional chips that you would usually find in the supermarket. Everything is nutritional there because it contains low sodium counts and low fat and of course low sugar content as well,” said Ward.
Ward says every child and parent gets an open choice on what food to eat in the components group.
“Our menu is posted on the Huntsville City Schools web page under the child nutrition program so they can look out to say that if this is a food that my child may want to eat, or the children also can go look as well. A lot of teachers and school site administrators will print those menus and they will have them in class so most children will know ok ‘this is what’s available from us today, tomorrow and the next day.”
Grissom High School parents refused interviews regarding their social media posts about the food that is served.