MONROEVILLE, Pa. – Parents and members of Gateway School District’s board of education were shocked to learn three-year-old ham purchased from the federal government was served to students in seven schools.

“Unacceptable!” parent Stephanie Daniels told WPXI. “Regardless if it’s frozen or not, these are our kids. This is our future.”

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Gateway school board vice president Valerie Warning revealed at a recent board meeting that she discovered six cases of sliced ham dating to April 2014 at the local high school food storage facility last week, and later learned the expired meat was being served to students.

Warning said Food Service Director Martin Lorenzo described the problem as “an oversight.”

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

He said the sliced ham had been served to students. In fact, it was almost all used up – although he does not remember how much the district originally received, he said.

The sliced ham cases were part of a USDA surplus commodity foods order, Lorenzo said. The food, valued at about $20,000, was free, except the district paid for shipping, which amounted to about $1,500.

Lorenzo explained that the U.S. Department of Agriculture does not recognize expiration dates for foods that remain frozen, so technically the ham is still considered safe.

“The only food that is defined as having an expiration date is baby formula, per USDA language,” Lorenzo said. “Date marking is a big misconception and it leads to $260 billion of food being wasted a year.”

The Tribune Review detailed several food violations at area school cafeterias for using moldy cheese past the sell-by date that was eventually thrown in the garbage.

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Regardless, Lorenzo contends officials consider food quality “very serious … paramount.”

“I like to feel that we have a safe operation here,” he told the Tribune Review. “We take no risks and no chances.”

Apparently neither does the school board.

Board members voted 5-4 this week to prohibit any district food storage beyond three years.

And Warning is calling on the board to take the food safety policy further at a June policy meeting.

“With my household, I wouldn’t have food for three years and serve it to my family,” Warning said. “I want stricter guidelines,” she said. “We want high standards for our schools’ education, well we should have high food standards, too.”

School officials trashed the expired ham on Wednesday. It’s unclear how much of it was served to students.

Warning told board members no students or staff have been sickened by the old food.