Cranston Public Schools announced during the week of Jan. 10, that the district’s food service, Aramark, decided to omit the cold lunch option from the elementary schools’ menus due to labor shortages.

“We chose the elementary schools because we could best meet the needs of the whole district that way. Since the middle and high schools are fewer in number and follow different guidelines, pausing the cold lunch option at the elementary level allows our staff to best accommodate the high volume of the two remaining options at the elementary schools — the hot lunch and the “fun” lunch option — while maintaining all other services across the district,” said Alison O’Rourke, the Food Services Director for Aramark.

With the district’s 15 elementary schools, each school sees an average of 120 to 150 students per day receiving lunch from the cafeteria. Because the cold option was omitted, the schools received extra hot entree options – averaging around 10 extra meals per school.

Cold lunch options usually consist of some type of sandwich, wrap or munchable that comes with fruit and vegetable options along with milk. The hot entree consists of meals such as pizza, tacos, ravioli and chicken Parmesan sandwiches; these meals also come with a vegetable or fruit and milk.

O’Rourke said that the number of students eating the cold lunch option is significantly less than the amount of students who choose the hot option. After a week of this change, elementary schools are seeing lunch participation has remained the same.

As of now, the cold option will remain off the menu. Aramark plans to notify the district as soon as they are able to provide the cold option again.