There were no on-site lunch options for Hal High (HHSS) students when they returned to school last week, with the Trillium Lakelands District School Board (TLDSB) confirming there will be no functional cafeteria until further notice.

Carolynne Bull, TLDSB spokesperson, said HHSS is one of five schools in the district without a running cafeteria, alongside Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School, Gravenhurst High School, Huntsville High School, and Lindsay Collegiate and Vocational Institute.

“There are no requirements [to serve food in schools],” Bull said. She noted TLDSB has a contract with food service supplier Aramark to operate the HHSS cafeteria. The company notified TLDSB in August it’s experiencing staff shortages and does not have enough workers to man the cafeteria.

Snack-tacular chef offers cafeteria fix

This isn’t the first time the cafeteria has been closed, Bull confirmed.

“There has been a few times over the last handful of years when the food service was not available, for reasons ranging from staff shortages to COVID-19 restrictions,” she said.

The school board said families were informed about the situation prior to students returning to school, with notices going out Aug. 28. Bull said the cafeteria space remains open for students to use throughout the day.

When asked what options students have for lunch, Bull recommended they bring food from home. She said students get a 55-minute break so they can also leave the school grounds and venture into nearby Haliburton village to get lunch.

The HHSS early morning breakfast program, run by volunteers, is not impacted by the cafeteria closure.

Bull said the cafeteria may reopen if Aramark is able to hire the necessary staff.

Aramark did not respond to questions by press time.

Solution denied

Chef Lisa Rowden said she was very disappointed to find out the cafeteria didn’t reopen when schools did. She said her daughter, who is in Grade 10 at HHSS, had to put up with multiple closures last year too.

Wanting to come up with a solution for the kids, Rowden said she offered to reopen the cafeteria last week but was turned down.

She’s spent the bulk of her career in a kitchen, running the West Guilford Snack Bar for several years, managing a cafeteria at a factory in Penetanguishene, and working as a sous chef at Dimensions Algonquin Highlands until her recent retirement. Rowden confirmed she has all the necessary food safety and sanitation certificates.

“I’m more than qualified to run a school cafeteria,” Rowden said. “I’m not doing this for the money, this is not a lucrative business. I just want the kids to have the option of getting food at school. They’ve lost so much already because of COVID, I think they should get to have a cafeteria.”

Rowden said she could have the cafeteria open within a couple of days, promising fresh baked goods like chocolate chip muffins and cinnamon rolls, homemade soups, salads, wraps, and a fluctuating hot menu.

Teri Guthrie, executive assistant to TLDSB superintendent Tim Ellis, in an email to Rowden indicated the school board could not take on another vendor due to its agreement with Aramark. She said Rowden was welcome to apply for a position working in the cafeteria through Aramark.

The local mom won’t be doing that – though said she won’t give up the fight to reopen the cafeteria.

“Days when the weather is really bad, what are kids’ supposed to do? My daughter called [on Monday] to say she didn’t get to walk to town because it was pouring rain, so she went hungry. That shouldn’t be happening,” Rowden said. “And maybe there are kids out there who aren’t in good situations and can’t take lunches to school. It feels like some kids are falling through the cracks.”

Algonquin Highlands resident Rae Mavor is calling on council to address safety concerns along North Shore Road by introducing a community safety zone along its busiest and most dangerous stretch.

She and husband, Ken, have lived on the road for 53 years and say they’ve never seen things as bad as they are now. They appeared before Algonquin Highlands council Sept. 5 to deliver a petition, signed by 99 other people, demanding the municipality take action.

“People are terrified to walk the road no matter what time of day it is – when there’s two cars on there, there’s no room for anything else,” Mavor said. “And the speeds people are travelling at makes everything that much worse. The road is for everybody – drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, dogs. We all have to respect one another.”

Mavor said there has always been problems with the road, but things took a turn four or five years ago. After hearing how a neighbour, out for an afternoon walk, had to dive into the ditch to avoid an oncoming vehicle earlier this summer, and seeing her daughter-in-law clipped by a passing car’s wing mirror, she decided enough was enough.

Her first step was to walk every inch of the approximate 3.6 kilometre stretch of North Shore Road from Hwy. 35 to St. Peter’s Bridge to note any danger she encountered or concern she had. Next, she drafted her petition, which she said has been supported by all but three residents of the road.

“I don’t know what it’s going to take to have people realize they need to slow down. There are mothers with babies walking down the road. Most residents have given up walking on the road completely. We’re almost prisoners on our lots,” Mavor said.

In a community safety zone speed limits are lowered, usually to 40 km/h, signs are erected encouraging people to slow down, and fines for those caught speeding are doubled. Mavor said many communities are opting for them to address problem areas.

They’re littered across major cities like Toronto and Ottawa, while Niagara Region has 12 community safety zones. Minden recently introduced one on Water Street and Bobcaygeon Road. There’s one in Ingoldsby, too.

Mavor contests there are more cars on the road, due to the expansion of the Maple Lake landfill. She’s also seen an increased presence of transport trucks.

“They’ll use North Shore Road as a shortcut to get to Haliburton from Huntsville. With the turn at St. Peter’s Bridge, trucks have hit and damaged it. I’m hoping if the township lowers the speed, the trucks will stop coming down here,” Mavor said.

Algonquin Highlands’ previous council turned down a request to lower the posted speed limit on the road in 2022. Deputy mayor Jennifer Dailloux, presiding over the meeting in the absence of mayor Liz Danielsen, said council would consider the request.

Public works manager Adam Thorn said he’s working on a report for an upcoming meeting filling council in on statistics gathered by a digital speed sign that was placed on the road earlier this year. As an early teaser, he noted 70 per cent of vehicles tracked by the sign were travelling less than 50 km/h – the posted limit.

He worried designating the entire stretch of road as a community safety zone may be ineffective. Councillors Lisa Barry and Sabrina Richards agreed.

Thorn said the answer may be requesting extra patrols from Haliburton Highlands OPP.

“I’ve sat on North Shore Road and watched cars go by. I lived on the road from 2010 to 2017, I still run down [the road] regularly. There’s good days and there’s bad days,” Thorn said. “If we reduce the speed limit, is that going to stop traffic? Is it going to slow them down? It’s enforcement [that changes behaviour]. Staff are doing what we can to help reduce speeding, but at the end of the day it’s enforcement of the law we need to curb it.”