By LAURA HAMMACK, guest columnist

The funniest thing happened in the Brown County Junior High School cafeteria the other day. (I imagine that sentence starter could take your imagination in all sorts of directions!)

I was walking through the cafeteria and asked a few of our students eating lunch at one of the tables how they were enjoying their lunch. The answer? It was an eruption! The table cheered and clapped their hands and all agreed that they LOVED their new school lunches!

Now, if you know anything about junior high-aged students, you know that a response of this nature is not typical.

As our readers may recall, Brown County Schools made a significant decision last school year to move to a food service management company contracting the delivery of our food service program for school year 2019-2020. This decision was made for several reasons.

First, the food service fund for Brown County Schools had run a substantial deficit for many years and we needed to do something significant to get this program back on track.

Second, with declining enrollment in the student population and dissatisfaction regarding school lunch options, the deficit was additionally burdened.

Third, we weren’t obtaining substantial discounts in food prices that come from the purchasing power of a much larger entity.

In the spring of 2019, the board of school trustees approved a food service management contract with Chartwells Inc. Beginning in July, Chartwells Inc. onboarded all of our Brown County Schools café team members and they provided robust training to the café staff in kitchen preparation techniques that result in fresh, “from scratch” meals.

From the first day of school, we have heard nothing but rave reviews regarding the breakfast and lunch options offered in all of our schools. Students and adults are enjoying the large variety of options that are available through the “scratch” cooking techniques. We are so pleased to offer fresh and healthy selections that are earning (literal!) cheers of praise from the students and staff.

The success of the transition is realized not just in anecdotal conversations that I have with students and staff. We are seeing record numbers of participation from students and adults in all of our schools. I have had conversations with at least a handful of parents who shared that they hated packing lunches previously but did so because their child had always refused to eat the school lunch. Now, their children have transitioned to school lunches and are loving every bite. I am so pleased to know that many of our parents have those precious few extra minutes back from not having to prepare a lunch every day!

Through this transition, parents now have access to an app called “Nutrislice” where they can see not only their child’s menu, but they can also better understand the nutritional information for every selection. Each item on the menu is detailed as if you were reading a label in a grocery store. We love this addition to our program, not only so parents may have a better idea of what their child is eating, but specifically for our families of students with food allergies who rely on this sort of information to keep their child healthy.

This transition has been a lot of work for new Food Service Director Don Hymer and the rest of the Chartwells team members. I am so grateful to all of the employees in the department who are working in our kitchens every day. They have worked so hard to learn new techniques while simultaneously feeding our school community in a way that we have never experienced before. These preparation methods are not easy; however, the result is truly extraordinary.

Change is never easy; however, this transition is already reaping incredible dividends. It is well-researched that healthy and well-fed children are better prepared for learning.

I am thrilled to share that there are even more exciting programs that will be coming from Chartwells in the coming months that will continue to enhance the health and wellness of our school community. We are just thrilled to offer this new era of food service in Brown County Schools!