The Kent School District has temporarily stopped serving certain entrée and side salads because the district’s source for most of its lettuce experienced severe rain and cold weather. Much of the crop was damaged or destroyed. As a result, the district has seen the price of lettuce rise dramatically because there is little product available for purchase. Additionally, the quality of the lettuce has deteriorated due to the weather conditions in the fields.

“I’m not happy about this situation, but product quality, availability and pricing drove this decision to remove salads temporarily,” Tom Ogg said, food and nutrition services supervisor. “We are concerned with providing quality, nutritious meals to our students. We look forward to bringing salads back once the price readjusts and the availability of quality product returns,” .

The Kent School District Food and Nutrition Services staff is constantly monitoring weather conditions and product quality in many of the agricultural regions where we receive food products. They anticipate most salads will remain off the menu temporarily until the end of March.