LMS Lunch a Bounty of Fresh Choices 

The level of variety served daily during Lynden Middle School lunch is unparalleled, featuring a range of fresh hot and cold options prepared daily on site. 

Each school day the LMS food service team, led by school lead Melissa Fritz, serves roughly 360 students across three lunch times (and sometimes nearly 390 students), more meals than get served daily at Lynden High School. With between 10 and 15 meal options each day, variety is certainly the spice sprinkled across LMS. 

Narlene Van Beek, Lynden Schools food service director, says the sub sandwich bar, with bread baked fresh daily features each sandwich made to order, proves a popular item, especially for sixth-grade students graduating into LMS from the elementary schools. Alongside the sandwiches sit salads, wraps, yogurt parfaits and grab-and-go peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all prepared fresh daily either at LMS or the district’s central kitchen at Bernice Vossbeck Elementary.

The fruit and vegetable bar features at least three fresh fruit options and anywhere from three to five (and sometimes more) veggies each day. 

On the hot side, there’s a constant rotation of daily entrees, from the popular spud bowl featuring mashed potatoes, chicken, gravy and green beans to rice bowls, a fiesta bowl, chicken nuggets and plenty more. Each Friday, the rotating entre gets a bit more creative, whether sloppy Joe’s or special in-house creations. 

Along with the hot entrée comes an additional hot option every day, with pizza the featured item on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and a burger bar on Tuesdays and Thursdays (typically with two different types of burgers, such as a cheeseburger and a chicken burger). 

Van Beek says Fritz does a tremendous job predicting the choices of the students, working to ensure students have plenty of options for lunch, no matter what time they come through the line. The highly involved preparation—some staff spend the mornings baking bread or prepping salads at BVE before bringing them over to start the lunch preparation process in the LMS kitchen—keeps the LMS food service team busy but also provides up to 15 different meal options for every student every school day.