PETERSBURG — A state legislator said Wednesday she approached the city public school system last spring with concerns about lunch offerings, claiming those concerns went unanswered until the issue resurfaced last week with photos on social media and a promise from the school system that something would be done .
Del. Kim Taylor, R-Dinwiddie County, said she met with the supervisor of the Petersburg City Public Schools’ nutrition program last April after constituents showed her photos of what their children were eating. In that meeting with Sandra Stokes, Taylor said they went over federal guidelines of school-lunch preparations, and she came away from that meeting with assurances “this would be evaluated to the best of their abilities.”
Then, when the parent of a Petersburg High School student put up photos on his Facebook page of chicken nuggets atop a lump of pasta, half of a baked sweet potato and a juice box – what his daughter claimed was lunch – Taylor said she was surprised.
“It was upsetting that not much has really changed,” Taylor said during a legislative meet-and-greet Wednesday afternoon in Colonial Heights. “I thought that between April and now, we would have gotten something done.”
The photos set off a social-media firestorm and prompted acting superintendent Yolonda Brown to order a review of the PCPS nutrition program and call in the state Department of Education for assistance in fixing what she called “unacceptable” food service.
‘We thought it was taken care of’
Following Wednesday night’s Petersburg School Board meeting, The Progress-Index asked board chair Kenneth Pritchett about what Taylor had said. He recalled that April meeting as well as Taylor showing them the photos.
“[Stokes] came in with a manual, and she explained to Delegate Taylor that she was following USDA guidelines,” Pritchett said. “That was basically it.”
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Asked to respond to Taylor’s statement that nothing had changed, Pritchett said once those guidelines were explained at the April meeting, “we thought it was taken care of. Then, all of a sudden, these pictures came out.”
Taylor said she has not spoken with Brown yet about the latest photos, but she added she was impressed with Brown’s public response and was “optimistic” for a resolution.
Series of community sessions planned
As part of her call for a review of the nutrition program, Brown directed the nutrition department to schedule a series of “feedback sessions” with parents and others on what should be done about future meal preparation and presentation.
Those sessions have been scheduled for Sept. 10 at Vernon Johns Middle School, Sept. 12 at Petersburg High School, and Sept. 16 at Cool Spring Elementary School.
The sessions will be completed by Sept. 17, the date of the next School Board meeting. Pritchett said Wednesday night he expects Brown will present the session results at that meeting.
Follow-up from parent
In the meantime, William Lamont Taylor, the parent who first posted the photos, said in a follow-up on his Facebook account that he appreciated that Brown "didn't deny that the appearance of the food was unacceptable." He said he plans to regularly post updates on how the food looks as PCPS fine-tunes the program.
"I know that you can pull up the lunch menu online, but the reason I posted the picture was to show a visual of what our kids be eating for lunch," the parent's post read. As for the daily updates, he said he was doing it "so us parents can have a visual of the quality of the food to go along with the description online of the food."
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Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: 'Upsetting': Legislator says she brought food issues to Petersburg schools last spring
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