As if school cafeteria lunches weren't bad enough, thousands of students in a Tennessee school district were served pork roast that expired six years ago.

Students in Hawkins County -- which comprises 18 schools and over 7,000 students -- were served pork roast dating back to 2009 after it had been frozen and thawed. The old roasts were supplied by the same vendor.

Michael Herrell, a parent and Hawkins County commissioner, said he was upset when he received a picture on Thursday of a pork roast from a cafeteria cook at Joseph Primary School.

"I'm disappointed the school system let this happen," Herrell told WCYB about the outdated pork. "To me, if we've got meat that old, I don't understand why."

He added that, "These high schoolers know when to not eat something, but elementary schoolers -- do they know if meat is bad or not?"

"They go to school and that might be the only meal they get all day long and it just ... upsets me that these kids are going to school to get that meal," Herrell told CNN affiliate WATE-TV. "It just didn't go over well with me that I heard we were feeding these kids the meat that's dated 2009."

According to USDA guidelines, uncooked meat should not be frozen for more than one year.

Herrell added that a cook at Cherokee High School told him that he was advised by the manager to cover the meat with gravy to make it taste better.

After finding meat dating back to 2009, 2010 and 2011 in the schools' freezers, Hawkins County director of schools Steve Starnes said they decided to implement new guidelines.

"We also began inventory of on all of our frozen food items to make sure," said Starnes, the Board of Education chair, to WATE-TV. "We're not only going to be incorporating the package date, but also the delivery date on our inventory items to make sure we know exactly when those items came in."

"We want parents to feel safe in knowing that when they send their children to school here, that we are providing them a quality food service program," he added.