DEWAYNE HOLLOWAY
Mount Ida cafeterias become the third Montgomery County school lunch program to partner with K-12 Culinary Connection for their food service menus.
They join Caddo Hills and Oden who partnered with K-12 Culinary Connection last year.
Mount Ida Board of Directors voted last Spring to partner with K-12 Culinary Connection as a food service consultant. K-12 Culinary partners with schools to provide a better dining experience for the students as well as the food preparation staff at the schools.
Meals are made from scratch and students always receive at least two options as they make their way through the line. High School students will always have the option of pizza, but the daily entree will change each day. There will be some days where they will have three options.
Another addition to the menu is a salad bar. Students are allowed to get as much as they want off the salad bar.
Both campuses have ala carte options as well. Students have the option of purchasing Gatorade, or chips in addition to the lunch provided by the school. The items are at an additional charge and must be consumed in the cafeteria.
K-12 Culinary Connection is currently partnered with 16 school districts in Arkansas. This gives them a larger volume of items to purchase, allowing for lower prices for them and the schools.
Justin Mills is the President and working Director for K-12 Culinary Connection. He is a highly trained chef, graduating from the Cordon Bleu Culinary School.
He has many years of experience in the food industry, starting out as a cook for the 82nd Airborne Division where he led the food operations in Afghanistan feeding Special Forces.
Mills began working in school food service after leaving the military andgraduating from culinary school.
