WAPATO, Wash.-- A Wapato woman says she's upset that her kids were served an unusual snack at school. Raw, red potatoes.
Nicole Navarro has three kids who go to Adams Elementary school in Wapato. As a volunteer there, she says she saw the red potatoes when they first came in to the school.
"I didn't think anything of it because I thought they were going to take them and bake them, and then have the snack," said Navarro.
But that's not what happened.
"My daughter said, mom, guess what we had for snack? I said, what'd you have for snack? She says, a potato. And I was like, ok. And she pulled them out and she said it's a raw potato, mom," explained Navarro.
And that's what has her pretty upset. She wonders why the school would serve raw potatoes, something she's never even considered feeding her kids.
But the district says it's not a big deal.
"Mainstay, it's not necessarily the norm, but it's not uncommon in some regions," said Mike Balmelli, the district's community relations manager.
In fact, the USDA says raw potatoes contain lots of vitamins like B6, and Vitamin C, all good things for kids.
And while it may be unusual to eat them raw, Balmelli says there are plenty of people who eat them uncooked all the time.
"As a kid I grew up on a farm. We didn't raise potatoes, but we raised other vegetables and I snacked on potatoes," Balmelli said.
The school district gets a $100,000 grant from the USDA to provide these kinds of snacks. They say part of that grant is exposing kids to foods they may otherwise never try.
And while they encourage students to try different things, they're never forced to eat them.
Navarro was also concerned with the quality of the potatoes. She says her daughter brought one home that was already rotten.
The district says they always serve high quality food, but will look into how the potatoes were served, to make sure they're up to par.
