DIAMOND, Mo. — The new academic year brings with it a new group of people cooking for students in Diamond.

Here’s why you might be surprised where some of that food will be coming from:

Last spring, the Diamond School District notified Opaa! that their services would no longer be needed.

“The school district operated their own food service up until 2010, and just recently decided to restart the Wildcat Café this school year.”

Superintendent Dr. Keith White said the decision to go back into the food service business had a lot to do with improving quality control of the product and utilizing as much locally grown food as possible.

“A whole bunch of our team is from this area, they’re they’re moms and grandmas and people that have fed kids in this community for years and years, and that we all had the same passion, so it was to make the best food we possibly can, the best experience we could for our kids.”

In fact, White says some of the members of the new staff actually worked for the district in the past.

But he says local farmers won’t be the only ones growing some of the food, so will FFA students.

“So they get to see from start to finish from the seed all the way to till it’s on their plate and that’s an opportunity we don’t always get, um so it’s really cool for me to see the kids not only see the flowers and the beautiful things we produce in this green house but they also get to see some realistic of this is how we feed ourselves, how we have sustainable agriculture as well,” said Diamond Ag Teacher & FFA Adviser, McKenzie Brashers.

Brashers s added that herbs are already growing in the greenhouse and that other vegetables are soon to come. And by this time next year, students will even be growing plants outside as well.