Greenbrier County Students Outraged By School Lunches - Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, Sports

Greenbrier County Students Outraged By School Lunches

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By Kelsey Borza, Reporter - email

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GREENBRIER COUNTY -

School lunches have changed state wide this year, and parents in Greenbrier County are outraged, saying their children come home from school starving.

It started with one kid snapping a picture of his lunch to show his parents, now hundreds are coming together for change.

Ashley Bowen said "We're rebelling against it. People always tell us to take a stand and stand up for something and we're going to."

Ashley Bowen says all the students she knows are unhappy and hungry.

Ryan Morgan said, "I am starving. I cant wait to go home because the food is so low. I am not thinking about school work, I am thinking about getting something to eat."

But school officials say there's not much they can do.

Child Nutrition Coordinator Jenny Curry said, "We can't super size meals at the school level. We cant serve extra portions we are given what we are to serve to those students."

The skimpy servings seem to be having a negative impact on some students.

Bowan said, "You go home and eat twice as much, of junk food. They could feed us at school and we wouldn't have that problem. After school everyone runs to McDonalds or Taco Bell to get something to eat."

One student at Greenbrier West High School made a facebook page to protest the new lunches. In just one day that page got over 400 followers of students and parents.

The plan for the lunch change is to allow them to try new foods.

Curry said, "Our hope is that they will try and eat some of these things and learn that there's some food that maybe they haven't been introduced to, they'll learn to eat them by trying them here."

Elizabeth Childers said, "Expecting kids to eat squash, or spinach salad. That's not going to go over very well."

And for some kids, lunch at school might be the only thing they get.

Bowen said, "It's kind of sad when people, that's the only meal they're going to get for the day and they're not getting anything to fill them up."

School officials did say that students who stay after school for programs or practice get a snack but students say they need a compromise in order to perform well in school without being distracted by their grumbling stomachs.