Feeding Creston’s kids

Feeding children clean and healthy foods is a passion of Teresa Clark’s, one she takes seriously.

As the food service director for the Creston Community School District, Clark is busy during the school year. Stationed at the elementary/middle school, Clark and her team are normally at the school and starting food prep by 6 a.m.

On this particular day, the main meal was lasagna.

“I made homemade Italian sauce,” Clarks said. “This is what we have for lunch today. It’s all fresh sauce and fresh everything in it, we made it this morning.”

Every day, the students also have some sort of fruit and vegetable to chose from.

“We always have some kind of fresh… like today with have oranges on the menu and salad. They come through and they get their milk,” Clark said.

In addition to the main menu, Clark also has a salad bar free for all students.

“We always have a full-fledged salad bar out there. That is for anybody. Even if they bring their own lunch, they can take from the salad bar, so I never have to worry about kids not eating,” Clark said. “I always try to have something different on there every day. They like it. They like a little bit of cheese and stuff they can mix and match. They have ranch they can dip their stuff in or they can use it for their salads. I give them a whole variety of stuff.”

Clark explained that, while she makes sure the kids get all the nutrients they need, she also thinks about what someone that age will actually eat.

“When I’m making the menus, I try to think of what my kids liked to eat when they were growing up, I’m thinking about what the kids are going to eat,” Clark said. “I throw in stuff like celery and stuff like that. I know they might try, probably not, but it’s there if they’re feeling like they want to try it. It’s there, it’s an option for them.”

Clark thinks that the concern of pre-packaged food is due to newer safety requirements.

“We have new ways that the state wants us to do things, kind of like the wrapping of the sandwiches, so that when they touch one, they don’t contaminate another since COVID,” Clark said. “We do a lot of different things with that, which I’m not sure if that’s where people were thinking we were having processed food. We didn’t. They just want us to make it easier for kids to eat and not worry about, well we’ve got to throw this out because he touched it with his pinky finger.”

Clark has been working in the food service industry for a while, and she said it’s the children that keep her going.

“I love the kids. The kids are what keeps me doing this,” Clark said. “They’re like my kids. If I’m not going to eat it, I’m not going to give it to them. It has to be good enough for me to eat or to feed my family to feed them. If it looks like, pff, I’m not giving it to them. They will not have bad food while I’m here.”

Weekly lunch menus can be found on the Creston Community School District website.