MCSTeachers Enjoy New Lunch Items

MASSENA - Massena Central School teachers now have a new choice of specially prepared daily lunch items.

The district began offering a daily lunch special for teachers on Jan. 23, with a selection of items that included chicken Caesar salad and a roll, a ham and cheese wrap with cream of potato soup, veggie lasagna with a wheat roll, a chicken bacon ranch wrap with macaroni salad and tuna salad on wheat with tomato basil soup.

Food Service Supervisor Sarah Boyce said the new teacher's menu choices are an addition to the regular school menu.

"We offer meals that are competitive with some of the other establishments in the community. We have a variety of items," she said.

The prices are also competitive with local establishments, Ms. Boyce said.

"The prices for the lunch special are competitive with local lunch establishments and are separate from the adult price for the daily lunch served in the cafeteria," she said.

For example, teachers paid $5.99 for the chicken Caesar salad, ham and cheese wrap and tuna salad on wheat, or $4.99 for the veggie lasagna and chicken bacon ranch wrap meals.

Each week's menu is posted on the district's website, where teachers can click on the Faculty Lunch Order link to order their meal. Teachers who are interested in ordering the lunch special must place their order by 1 p.m. the day before.

"This will allow the kitchen staff to prepare the correct amount to send to each building," Ms. Boyce said. "Each Thursday we will post the new menu for the following week."

She said teachers can also make suggestions for daily specials, which are all prepared in the district's kitchen for delivery to them.

For students, the district continues to offer an after-school snack bar program, the After-School Grab-N-Go program in the high school concession stand area.

The program, which runs every afternoon, began with a limited menu, but now consists of favorite items from the lunch menu, such as chicken burgers, Raider burgers, French fries, pizza, soft tacos, spicy chicken and subs.

Students can use their meal account to make purchases, but parents must approve the use of student accounts to purchase after school snacks, and there must be money on that account. Students cannot charge the meal, and free or reduced prices do not apply.