UPDATE: We contacted Megan Doran, Director of Food and Nutrition Services for the St. Mary’s County Public Schools, and have updated the story to provide her insight into the situation.
Hollywood, MD – Tuesday, April 5 a photo of purportedly expired school milk was posted to Facebook, spurring a firestorm across social media:
The post was from Latoya Mason, a mother of students attending Spring Ridge Middle School and Park Hall Elementary School. The mother claims that her kids were “coming home crying” due to the allegedly spoiled milk. After instructing her children to bring home milk cartons for her to examine, the mother posted a photo seemingly implicating St. Mary’s County public schools. The milk carton appears to have an expiration date of April 12, 2015, which would clearly be unacceptable for human consumption.
With talk of school milk buzzing across Southern Maryland, our news team procured a milk carton from a local school to check it out ourselves. After examining the label, we noted that the expiration date is April 14th. The time it was produced is 11:33 while the product code is 42-046 1C. Our findings would seem to indicate that Ms. Mason’s contention that the milk was dated “April 12, 2015” is incorrect and that the “15” is actually part of the time the milk was manufactured (in military time).
While the expiration date fiasco appears to have been debunked, Ms. Mason and other parents remain concerned and upset about their children’s milk at school.
According to Mason, the milk issue has been an ongoing concern for the community and its students for over a year. The issue came to the forefront of Mason’s attention approximately two weeks ago when her daughter, a second grade student at Park Hall Elementary School, came home complaining about the “stinky and chunky” milk.
Her eldest son, a 13-year year old student at Spring Ridge Middle School, corroborated his sister’s account, telling his mom that he “always gets rotten milk” at school.
Mason was skeptical at first, wary that her younger children may simply be mistaken. She probed them, theorizing that the milk could be whole milk.
“No mom, it’s not whole milk,” Mason was told by her kids. “When you open (the milk), it stinks and it curdles up.”
Yesterday, April 5, marked the first day of school activities after Mason’s viral Facebook post. Curiously, Mason’s 13-year old son alleges that breakfast was served around 8:30 a.m. rather than its typical 7:10 – 7:15 time slot. Moreover, he maintains that he clearly saw new milk being carted in to the cafeteria while the old milk was being carted out.
TheBayNet contacted Megan Doran, Director of Food and Nutrition Services for St. Mary’s County Public Schools, in relation to this story. She answered our questions directly, vehemently denying that milk was removed from the cafeteria yesterday and asserting that breakfast was served on time at Spring Ridge Middle School yesterday. Doran also claimed that she has not received complaints from parents about the school milk.
Spring Ridge Middle School is one of 21 St. Mary’s County Public Schools set to receive the Gold Star Award on April 7, 2016, an award with the following criteria:
- No critical violations
- No temperature violations cited during a monitoring inspection
- All violations noted by an inspector must be corrected by a 30-day follow-up inspection
- No confirmed unsafe food handling complaints
- At least one food service worker completed a recognized and approved “Food Service Sanitation and Safety Class” within the last two years.
If you have any concerns about the food or drink sanitation, please contact Megan Doran at 301-475-4256 Option 5.
Contact Corey Chaconas at corey.c@thebaynet.com