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Matthew Reedholm, 10, spoke to the Baltimore County School Board last week presenting an array of collected data and photographs of the options of questionable food students were receiving from the schools.
"Does this look like a lunch to you? Would you eat this? I am going to guess that your answer was no", said Matthew to the board in a recorded clip as he points to a poster of examples of the food he had been provided.
Matthew's mother, Jenn Reedholm says that this issue has been going on for years, and that the COVID-19 pandemic is no excuse.
The Reedholm family had first noticed the issue after they lost their home in a house fire in 2016, when BCPS deemed the family homeless in order to provide free meals to their children until they got back on their feet.
"That is when my middle schooler started sending me pictures regularly to show me what was being served. My daily question was 'What is this?'. Many times, she didn't even know", says Reedholm.
The concerned mother showed the photos of her daughter's lunches to young Matthew, asking if the food looked the same, to which he confirmed, even noting that most of the kids were throwing away the food after only a few bites.
Once the pandemic hit, the family says the options got even worse as free meals began being offered to all children. Eventually young Matthew decided that enough was enough, and took matters into his own hands to develop the presentation he gave in front of the school board.
Not only did Matthew point out how unappetizing the options were, he scolded the board for the poor nutritional value of what they were offering growing children, which for some could be their only hot meal of the day.
"Since when is a meat stick is an acceptable option for lunch? It has a lot of salt and preservatives" he said. "The Trix yogurt that is served contains sugar as the SECOND ingredient!"
Matthew went even further, as the 10-year-old offered researched options of healthy and inexpensive meal choices to the adults. He suggested to offer a larger variety of options, including fresh produce and healthy sandwiches.
The courageous fourth grader ended his speech to the school board with an important message:
"Kids aren’t dumb. They know this isn’t right. This problem needs to be immediately addressed! You are the adults and you are the only ones that can fix this!"
Daily Voice has reached out to the school board who has not immediately returned a comment.
Matthew's courageous speech can be viewed here.
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