Worms found in school lunches on Fort Bragg

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Fayetteville mom who doesn't want to be identified is outraged over what was found in her daughter's cafeteria food.

Worms. Yes, the school confirms worms were served to students Tuesday.

"My 10-year-old who can barely find something red in their face--within 5 minutes noticed there's worms in her food," the woman said to ABC11.

The incident happened last Tuesday at Irwin Intermediate School on Fort Bragg.

The mother quickly logged onto social media to see if her child was the only student spotting worms crawling on their plate.

"Within 5 minutes of my post, I had comments from 10 moms saying my child literally just told me this."

ABC11 spoke to a father of a student at the school by phone. He said his son saw the worms too.

"They deserve to eat a decent meal without any worms," said the father who also did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation.

A Department of Defense Education spokesperson said last Monday the school district received 24 cases of broccoli from the Department of Agriculture containing harmless worms--unaware to them. The next day the broccoli was served.

The spokesperson also said:

On Dec. 7, that broccoli was prepared and served. A student immediately returned a meal saying a worm was in it. Within 15 minutes of the beginning of the school lunch period, we removed the broccoli from the serving line of all schools located at Fort Bragg. Because students take a lunch break in successive waves, few students were affected by this. We immediately informed the North Carolina Department of Agriculture that worms were found in the broccoli and the broccoli was discarded. We take a lot of pride in the healthy meals we serve students and are taking appropriate steps to ensure this type of incident does not happen again. Out of an abundance of caution, we asked Fort Bragg Preventive Medicine and Food Inspectors to conduct inspections on the cafeteria (completed on 15 December). No deficiencies were found.

But the mom ABC11 spoke to said she shared her concerns directly with the school district's director of nutrition--disappointed over what she calls negligence, and the school's failure to inspect what it is feeding her child and others.

"If that is your job, that's your job description, that's what you are meant to do. It should be done properly. Someone should be held accountable. If you're not held to a standard--in anything in life--how will you ever do better."

Parents said moving forward, they're packing lunches.