Middle School In Hot Water After Its Lunch Supplier Serves Chicken, Waffles & Watermelon For Black History Month

By now, we’ve celebrated Black History Month for over 40 years. Yet, many companies remain tone-deaf during the February celebration.

A Nyack, New York, middle school is now issuing an apology after their food-service vendor, Aramark, decided to change the lunch menu on the first day of Black History Month. Nyack Middle School students were served fried chicken, waffles, and watermelon on February 1st. However, school officials say this menu was served without their consent.

One day after the meal debacle, Principal David Johnson sent a letter to parents, apologizing for the “regrettable situation.” He expressed his disappointment in Aramark for randomly serving food items that were not a part of the monthly published menu. The vendor also apologized, maintaining the chicken and waffles were not meant to be a “cultural meal” but was simply a matter of bad timing.

“We acknowledge that the timing was inappropriate, and our team should have been more thoughtful in its service,” the company wrote in a statement that was shared on Nyack’s website.

Though the company claims they weren’t intentionally trying to serve a Black History Month lunch, they have been guilty of crafting a stereotypical racial feast in the past. In 2018, NYU students were offered a well-planned “Black History Month Menu” that included ribs, cornbread, collard greens, mac and cheese, and, most upsetting, red Kool-Aid and watermelon-flavored water. This triggering meal caused the university to stop using the company as its food provider.

Long associated with Black people, watermelon and fried chicken have slavery-related roots. Minstrel shows have depicted Black people eating the foods during the 19th century.