LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – Technology constantly evolves, and some high school students thought that technology could allow them to opt out of school lunch and use popular delivery services like Waitr.

But the Lafayette Parish School System says the deliveries are banned for several reasons.

“The questions come up if it’s worse this year or not, it’s really not.
It’s less of an issue at the elementary schools and the middle schools, it becomes more of an issue at the high schools,” said Joe Craig, Chief Administrative Officer of the Lafayette Parish School System.

While food delivery services like Postmates, Uber Eats and Waitr are convenient and easy ways for people to get food delivered right to their door, they’re not allowed in high schools in Lafayette Parish.

“There’s administrative issues and their nutritional issues. Nutritionally, we have a wellness policy, and the guidelines for that wellness policy come from the USDA,” said Craig.

He says USDA’s policies require the school system to minimize the competition among school-served meals and outside fast foods.

“Our policy is that we deliver to high schools and leave the order with the administration there,” said Whitney Savoie, Director of Market Development at Waitr.

She says it’s actually an internal policy within the Waitr company to drop off the food at the front desk of any school. But really, Waitr can deliver anywhere.

“So we are on the side of the administration. If they don’t want their students ordering during school hours, that’s kind of our policy that we’ll bring it to the front desk during school hours. So it’s really up to the administration on how they would like to handle it in the future,” said Savoie.

LPSS says if students want to bring their own lunch from home, they’re definitely allowed to do so.
But having different people delivering food on campus, could also be a safety risk.

“If you start getting 5,10 people showing up from a different fast food or some delivery agency, the clerks just can’t keep track of the people coming and going,” said Craig.

These rules won’t change anytime soon, until the USDA decreases those limitations.

For more information, visit LPSS’ website.