Even though school lunches have seemingly improved since the days of mystery meat, it doesn’t mean they’re flawless. And no, I’m not just talking about nutrition. Sometimes, we need to have faith that cooks are always acting in our best interest, but a school cook in Nebraska managed to get parents talking.
Potter-Dix Junior/Senior High School in Potter, Nebraska only has 78 students, which means that it might be a little easier to craft lunches for everyone. For example, Munchies reports that last week’s menu included meals like corn dogs, pizza, and chili. But, not just any chili. Cook Kevin Frei admitted that he snuck some kangaroo meat in there, since it was nutritionally a good choice.
While it seems like he was genuinely looking out for the kids, there’s something very creepy about not knowing what you’re eating. Especially if what you’re eating is exotic meat.
In a world where people bake ashes into cookies and put laxatives into company brownies, adding kangaroo isn’t too terrible. But it’s still perfectly reasonable for parents to feel a little concerned about this secret ingredient.
Superintendent Mike Williams made sure to inform parents, assuring that it’d never happen again. “If a family wants to eat exotic foods, they can do so on their own time—not at school,” William wrote, per Munchies. “If we were to have food or ingredients that are out of the ordinary, they should be listed on the menu so that the students and families are aware of what they would be being served. We will no way be serving food of this nature again. Period.”
Kangaroo meat isn’t as common as you may assume—even in Australia. It was only legalized for consumption in the 1980s in South Australia. These days, it’s a little more common. Products like kangaroo sausage (or, Kanga Bangas) are sold at grocery stores—but it doesn’t mean that the whole country is chowing down. It’s unclear where Frei got the kangaroo meat from—it doesn’t seem like the type of ingredient you just order from Amazon.
From the looks of it, it seems as if Frei is still employed by the school. Hopefully he at least learned a very valuable lesson— you should always be transparent and upfront with what you’re serving.
