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Healthier lunch option at CMS school to take time, superintendent says

CHARLOTTE, N.C, — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools unveiled a brand-new role: manager of culinary development.

The $85,000 job is supposed to improve the quality of school lunches.

Jody Francisco was hired to improve the taste and quality of school food, among other things.

“I think what you'll see is a little more of our orientation around getting kids to know where foods come from and healthy choices and gardening and things like that,” said CMS Superintendent Clayton Wilcox.

Channel 9 anchor Stephanie Maxwell checked the lunch menus for the first days of the new school year and saw the typical pizza, burgers and nuggets, not the healthier choices Francisco said he implemented in the Maryland school district where he and Wilcox came from.

“More fresh vegetables in terms of being prepared differently,” Francisco said. “Instead of steaming them, now we're roasting them; adding herbs and spices to them.”

Channel 9 asked Wilcox when that will be added to the menus.

“It may be October-November before you see any changes there,” Wilcox said. “But even then, the changes will be nominal because we order foods out a year in advance.”

Terry Stoops, with the John Locke Foundation, an education watchdog group, said not having the program ready to go for the first day of school is a major mistake.

“That's why it's so important at the beginning of the school year to provide the type of meal that's going to attract families to the school lunch program, because that really is the problem,” Stoops said. “They're not being sold on it.”

Stoops said getting families to buy school lunch is why Francisco was hired.

Wilcox is urging parents to give the program a chance.

“That change will take time, and I hope the community will show that patience,” Wilcox said.

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