Students in the Pearl River County School District have been celebrating school lunches with three weeks of themed events and menus.

The celebration began last week with World School Milk Day, where a local farmer brought a cow to the elementary campus so children could see where their dairy comes from, said Food Service Administrator Sheila Amacker. Students at the middle and high school campus had the opportunity to make their own yogurt parfaits.

This week the children got a chance to taste some new foods during Mississippi Farm to School Week. Tuesday, children were given the choice to add a sweet potato to their lunch tray, which was grown locally. Several students opted to try the orange colored tuber.

And next week, students will dine on foods they chose themselves as part of National School Lunch Week. Amaker said the student body was polled for their favorite foods. Next week, the elementary lunch menu will feature the most popular choices, such as pizza, hamburgers, beef nachos and even breakfast for lunch.

The three week long event will conclude with middle and high school students receiving grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch that Friday, while elementary students will be looking under their lunch trays for a sticker that will earn them a gift bag filled with bookmarks, erasers and bracelets, Amacker said.

She said she couldn’t put on events like these without her dedicated staff at each campus, including the managers at each facility.

“I have a great staff that supports events like this,” said Pearl River County Elementary Cafeteria Manager Myra Smith.

Amacker said the aim of the three weeks worth of festivities is to entice children to eat healthy foods.