Volume 5, Issue 2

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Renton High School 400 South 2nd Street Renton, Wash. 98057 11.20.12

SCHOOL LUNCH Food Service Manager Heather Mann lays it out: “What we look for is protein, grains, fruits or vegetables, and milk.” P. 2 THIRTY EVEN MINUTES: You

thought you had time to walk to Taco Bell. Psych!

ARROW reporters penetrate the cafeteria’s interiors and ask some homegrown questions to those who stay in.

See p. 4 & 5.

P. 8 & 9: History teacher Rosemary Shaw is nice.

Go eat lunch with her!(But not all at once, okay?)

P. 8.

YOU JUST GOT SERVED.

P. 6 & 7 is full of trash. It’s your garbage and unwanted leftovers— like your exgirlfriend. That’s right; we compared your lunch to your ex-girlfriend.

Hope you didn’t share that sandwich.

DON’T DRINK THAT NASTY GOOP. Evelyn Fitz can’t tolerate the chocolate milk that, like, one thousand percent of students prefer.

See p. 10.

WIPE YOUR MOUTH! Naje Bryant’s napkin raps will clean you up. See p. 12.

Alex Kalinin arto

ArrowPrepared30Minutes From Renton To New York, school lunches all over the nation have changed due to first lady Michelle Obama’s Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA), which requires students to adapt to a new reduced-calorie lunch menu The next two pages contain information about the state of school lunch at school, district, state, national and international levels. How many students get free and reduced lunch right here, right now? What does lunch look like in Norway and Japan? Find a comfortable seat and enjoy our plate of information.

@ THE SCHOOL LEVEL: reduced calories |Andrea Buenbrazo |Handled Co-editor It doesn’t take an everyday lunch goer to notice the change in school lunches. Junior Alfonso Garcia doesn’t buy lunch regularly but can see the difference.

“I’ve noticed that they’re using more processed foods than they used to and that they’re obligating students to get more nutrition as in fruit,” Garcia said.

In fact, lunch sizes are smaller due to Michelle Obama’s HHFKA which took effect this school year.

Lunch sizes have been limited to 750-850 calorie meals, leaving some students hungry.

“It makes me feel hungry after I’m done eating,” sophomore Anganae Walker said. “It’s not that huge [of a deal] but some people go to their class and they’re still hungry.”

Other students, like sophomore Medina Mehmedovic,

MEHDOVIC

aren’t complaining about the lunch size at all.

“It’s really the same. There’s only one little difference and it doesn’t really matter to me,” Mehmedovic said, “and it’s healthier. I love healthy.”

Despite the difference in opinion, both students on the opposite ends of the spectrum can see the benefits in the smaller lunch sizes.

“I think this is better for school because it just shows us that we should have a healthier lifestyle,” Mehmedovic said.

“It’s good that they’re making us eat the half [a cup] of vegetable or fruit but then we’re still hungry,” Walker said. “How are we supposed to have energy if we’re still hungry and tired?”

What most students don’t know is that the cuts in the school lunches are to help fight the rising obesity problem in America.

“It might help a little bit but I think they should put more salads because a lot of students actually like that,” Mehmedovic said, “and we should have a lot more activities in gym and stuff instead of having two years.”

SHe is not the only person that has this thought.

“They should make us exercise more instead of eating less because we’ll have less energy,” Walker said.

DIETARY RESTRICTIONS |Aidan Chaloupka |Prepared Staff Renton is a diverse school with diverse appetites.

Freshman Shakirah Hajismael follows halal, the Islamic dietary law that regulates how an animal can be killed and what species are to be eaten. This impacts the foods she can eat at school.

“I feel like the school doesn’t provide adequate support for people like me because most of the food isn’t halal,” Hajismael said.

HAJISMAEL

Hajismael offered suggestions to better the eating experience for those like her.

“It would be awesome if the school served halal meat because then everyone at school could eat with no worries about being ‘un-halal,’” Hajismael said.

Junior Kanishk Shukla follows a vegetarian diet, a common custom in India, the country of his family’s origin.

He’s happy with the school’s offerings.

“I don’t get school lunches, but I could [go] without worrying about being non-vegetarian,” Shukla said. “It’s okay as it is. There is really nothing they need to improve.”

As of Thursday, Nov. 15, the school lunch menu posted online listed no vegetarian meals besides cheese pizza and sides like the salad bar.

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customers, who have the option of going off campus to other dining establishments.

There are some restriction though.

“Honestly, kids have to select from the salad bar,” Acker said.

And if students don’t eat the food they select?

“If they don’t consume the food then it will not help them,” Acker said, indicating that such offerings are there to complement students’ lunches and make them more complete.

Ordering and preparing food is not their only job.

“We staff the kitchens, order and pay all the bills, develop new recipes and submit claims to the state,” Mann said.

With 80 trained staff members, the Nutrition Services Office works to market meals and programs; keep students awake and focused in class; and follow appropriate FDA food guidelines and make sure cooking is done correctly.

For Mann and Acker, the hard work pays off at the end. They provide school lunches for a variety of students in the district.

At Renton High School, school lunch costs $3.00; breakfast is $1.50; for students who qualify for free-and-reduced meals, prices vary.

Da

|Norma Campos |Cover Staff For many students, lunch is little more than a thirty minute break, but for preparation staff, food service managers, and district managers it’s a daily occupation.

Food service manager Heather Mann and district manager of nutrition Kira Acker dedicate time to buying food that’s healthy for students—and tasty.

They try to leave as much of the decision making to students as possible while also carefully planning and balancing each menu’s taste and nutrition, keeping in mind that some students want to feel full when they finish a meal.

“Every item has a different portion size,” Mann said. “What we look for is protein, grains, fruits or vegetables and milk.”

And yet, according to Mann, often the common items are the most popular, including pizza, spaghetti, entrée salads and chicken nuggets. Entrée salads—the large salads that contain meat—are one of the items students seem to select.

Acker, Mann, and other nutrition services staff try to change the menu regularly to keep the offerings fresh and keep new items trending among the cafeteria’s

R HO EQUIR OL LU EMEN me NC at /pr H O TS F ot ein FF OR ERI NG S

@ the District Level: underCover

Bread, Pasta or rice

Vanessa Abenojar graphic

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@ THE STATE LEVEL: FREE AND REDUCED LUNCH BREAKDOWN Left, discounted lunch by county. Below, what it means Whatcom

San Juan

Okanogan

Skagit

Ferry

Stevens

Pend Oreille

Island Clallam

Snohomish Chelan

Jefferson

Douglas

Kitsap Grays Harbor

Mason

Grant

Kittitas

Pierce

Adams

Thurston Pacific Wahkiakum

Spokane

Lincoln

King

Lewis

Whitman

Franklin

Garfield

Yakima

Columbia

Cowlitz

Benton

Skamania Klickitat

Clark

Asotin

Walla Walla

Ksenia Ivanova graphic

Key 30-39%

40-49%

50-59%

60-69%

@ THE NATIONAL level: Debate on Food

Students Hang Bui (H), Delfin Buyco (D) and Kahili Makahi (M) tackle an important aspect in today’s public schools: new nutrition guidelines. Each student offers their own opinion on how they align themselves with the First Lady Michelle Obama’s new bill.

BUI

BUYCO

|Rafael Agas |Leftovers Staff H: I don’t like limiting calories based on age.

Not everyone needs the same amount of calories.

Eating healthy is important but if I have to starve for the rest of the day then that’s not a good solution.

D:Yeah, especially in a school, where there is a wide range of caloric intake needs.

ARROW: Is there any part of the guidelines you agree with?

H: I don’t have a problem with eating healthy; it’s just the sizes of the lunch D: Ditto. Balanced diets are hard to argue with. But to be honest, most teenagers don’t have the time or will to be physically active. The sides don’t have to be necessarily unhealthy. A banana or granola could be a side.

H: I know. The school cut back on the serving size but the sides they offer don’t make up for it. I just wanna be full.

D: Why don’t we just keep the different variety of sides (fruit, crabs, etc.)? It seems that the bigger issue is health education about food.

A: So if you could change the guidelines to satisfy your needs, what would you do?

K: Larger food portions... people like that

MAKAHI

play sports have a higher calorie need than those who don’t do sports.

A: So would you say that the decrease in proportions can also be a bad thing?

H: Yeah, they could’ve at least given us more alternatives if they were going to decrease the size, like a whole baked potato with cheese in place of jojos.

K: I would say that because the decrease could also dramatically affect someone’s body...

Besides isn’t high school supposed to teach us how to responsible adults? Controlling what we eat isn’t doing a very good job of that.

A: Kahili brings up an important point: Texas and a few other states aren’t all too fond in the new guidelines. What do you think of this?

K: I think that they’re giving their students the right environmental standards for them to be good and successful students that will have better test scores, grades, etc.

D: I mean, the guidelines pretty much outline a healthy diet. They’re pretty good for the average student. It should more like promoting a healthy lifestyle in the lunchroom AND in the classroom - keeping the balanced diet guidelines, but also reinforcing that idea of a healthy diet in class.

70-79%

| Ksenia Ivanova | Managing Editor The method of payment for school lunches is a class distinction: a fine line between the middle class and lower classes. Either your income falls low enough to receive benefits, or it doesn’t.

Here are the facts: According to 2011 data, 48.1% of students enrolled in public schools in urban counties have free and reduced lunch, 54.8% in suburban counties and 56.3% in rural counties.

What this means: Whether you live in urban, suburban, or rural areas, the difference between families in your county receiving discounted school meals and the difference in other counties is a maximum of 8.2%.

But there are differences.

Within each county—within each neighborhood, of

course—incomes vary.

But a trend emerges.

With exception to Whitman and Adams County, the counties with the lowest and highest percentages of students receiving benefits are urban. (Whitman’s percentage is a low 33.6%, and Adams is a high 75.1%.) Urban areas are both poorer and richer than the rural counties in Wash.

Comparatively, the counties grouped mostly in the middle of the economic spectrum (but leaning a bit toward the poorer side) are rural.

So while students chewing on pizza crusts in city schools may be more likely to sit next to students paying full prices or absolutely nothing at all, students chewing on relatively similar crusts in rural schools probably pay the same reduced fee.

@ THE INT’L LEVEL: OBESITY RATES

|Amanda Dyer |Prepared Co-Editor The United States has the highest obesity rate in the world.

Countries such as Norway and Japan have some of the lowest obesity levels. In a comparison of 28 countries in the world, Japan ties with South Korea for the lowest obesity rate at 4.2%. Norway sits at space 26 with 8.3% obesity.

The United States tops the chart with the largest number of obese citizens: 30.6%.

Norway and Japan do not have a school lunch system like our own. In fact, they really don’t have one at all. Most students in Norwegian high schools and Japanese high schools are required to bring their own lunches to school instead of being served by the lunch ladies in the cafeteria.

Some of these schools do not even have a cafeteria; students just eat in their classrooms.

This is contrary to many schools in America; at Renton, food isn’t even allowed in classes.

This change in school diet—or in some cases, just relying on sack lunch meals from home—may be one factor influencing the obesity rates of these countries’ populations.

Students’ forced to bring their own meals can cook to their own tastes and possibly prepare healthier meals.

Japanese meals are known for large amounts of rice but also for a balanced amount of vegetables and other nutrient rich foods low in fat.

The people of Norway mostly eat a Scandinavian diet full of nutrient rich foods.

They also rely heavily on fish and seafood just as Japan does for its famous sushi.

Will American high school students with packed lifestyle give up the convenience of having it made for themselves? Maybe yes, maybe no.

Amanda Dyer Art

Prepared30MinutesLeftovers Twenty-four ARROW reporters ventured to the watering hole of the lunchroom to study student behaviors for thirty minutes. Blending with the masses and running with the pack, they watched young cubs, cool cats, elders, omnivores, herbivores, scavengers and vultures feast. What they came back with was...

ELEVEN SCENES FROM THE CAFETERIA 4

Location: in the dead Location: in the back middle, the table closest right corner, long tables, to the stage by the condiment bar | Abigail Cetino 3

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Location: table next to line number one |Mirjam Amstutz | Ads and Business Manager “When we see somebody already sitting at our table, we move to the next one,” freshman Jemimah Cavagdan said, “but it does not often happen that this table is already taken.”

With having freshman P.E. for her fourth period, freshman Dayana Muzycnuk saves the table for the group of friends because she has P.E. fourth period.

“We are sitting here with our friends,” freshman Lyndzy Garcia said.

At the time Garcia was eating with Cavagdan, Kim Nguyen, Thoa Nguyen and Dayana Muzycnuk.

GARCIA

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Location: the tables by the third line

|Annie Kwan | Leftovers Editor “We’re weirder, if you haven’t noticed,” |Alex Kalinin freshman Julicia Moralesio said. | Art Editor She had a typical silver lip piercing on Ilie Lurco eats lunch at school every day the right of her in the cafeteria bottom lip. because it’s free.

At the Lurco almost loud table sat always has no Moralesio’s close one to share his friends. lunch table with.

“My new “Last year best friend,” our table was full Moralesio said, of people, people pointing at who spoke freshman Leroy Russian and Moldavian, languages that are J. Rowe. much easier for me,” Lurco said.

“She’s my poke person,” Rowe said, He goes to the further line and tries giving a poke to the bright turquoise haired to get a salad or something like that Moralesio. something healthy. All he has on his table is “So far, our table has never been taken. usually a plate, chocolate milk and a phone, Since we always get here first,” freshman for playing low-level music.

Arielle Wincek said.

“I enjoy my own company,” Lurco said.

Moralesio glanced at her pizza on a “I don’t know English very well, so due to tray of salad and a side of dressing, with that I don’t talk very much.” chocolate milk and a large banana.

LUCERO

MORALSERIO

| Eaten Editor If someone were to take his table sophomore Moshea Cox wouldn’t let that slide.

“I’d tell them to move,” Cox said, taking a bite into his deli sandwich.

“Sometimes people don’t know but you got to put your foot down.”

He sits at that table with Junior Hamdi Abdirahmah and sophomore Najma Mohamed about twice a month.

Abdirahmah is usually the first to claim the table but when that doesn’t happen Cox goes for a direct approach whenever he sees someone else at his table.

“If they don’t [move, I] just call them like a name and go somewhere else,” Cox said, while Mohamed flashed him a disapproving glance. “Sometimes I just go to the bathroom.”

COX

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Location: second table closest to the stage by the front doors |Evelyn Fitz |30 Minutes Staff Freshman Dakari Fann steals his lunch.

Sometimes.

Mostly. From people he knows.

“Mostly the apples,” Fann’s tablemate Reno Zera said, “but he doesn’t buy lunch.”

Fann takes a plastic package of pre-cut red apples from the front pocket of his gray sweatshirt. Then he takes out fourteen more, tallying his total—and defending his practice—as he goes.

“People give me their food. I don’t steal it. There is a difference,” Fann said.

Strangely, the friends at the table don’t like to share their food. (Fann collects mostly unopened packets of apples.) They also don’t seem to eat much other than the apples. A single generic water bottle sat on the table.

Other just opened facts: the group welcomes visitors to their table, and they rarely go off-campus.

“We’re all too lazy to go off campus,” Zera said. “It’s too much work to walk all the way to Safeway.”

FANN

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Location: table closest to thee “to go” line and adjcent to the stage |Amanda Dyer |Prepared Editor Asha Mohammed is extremely dedicated to her personal favorite for lunch.

“I only eat pizza,” Mohammed said.

She faithfully chewed her lunch seeming more involved in the pizza than being interviewed.

Her friends laughed and chattered in the background as they do each day (hair whipping or head scarves gently pushed by the wind each time the door to the cafeteria was opened.) Most of the people at the table wore head scarves.

Besides her dedication to pizza she also has a dedication to the table. She gets to the table first so she and her friends can sit together and enjoy their meals.

“This is our table,” Gathu said. “If someone was here I would go, ‘Oh no, move.’

Most of us wouldn’t fight though.”

Sometimes they share lunches and enjoy eating a variety of foods except for Mohammed who has specific favorite, pizza.

MOHAMMED

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Location: corner table closest to the door |Monalynn Orejudos |30 Minutes Editor Freshman Nicholas Sidwell normally eats alone.

“I am not a loner, more of a caveman,” Sidwell said.

“Anyone is welcome to sit with me.”

His typical lunch consists of a granola bar, Oreos, a Caprisun, and a peanut butter and plum jelly sandwich which his mother makes with the plums from their front yard. Although he likes school lunch food, Sidwell loves to bring his lunch simply because it is much easier.

SIDWELL

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Location: before the Location: last slanted third line by the huge long table next to glass window in the back the windows

Location: last row of the Location: second row, cafeteria, three tables up closest circular table near the condiment bar to line one

|Rafael Agas |Leftovers Staff Freshman Mohamed Jeele, sophomore Jose Ramirez and senior Abdulahi Mohammad sit together.

“I’m comfortable with certain groups, like my friends,” Jeele said.

Ramirez, donning a rolled-up longsleeved shirt, agreed with his friend.

“Yeah, a lot of friends, [rather] than people I don’t know,” Ramirez said as he cut into Jeele’s thoughts.

Like Mohammed, some have specific reasons as to why they choose to sit with their friends.

“I’m new to this school so I sit here every day now,” Mohammad said with a thick Somalian accent as he tried to beat the overlapping conversation behind them.

Just like the pizza they were eating, their friendship remains a whole even when separated by the school’s winding halls.

|Alicia Quarles |Digested Editor Sophomore Derek Elizondo is always first to sit at his table. Vy Nguyen is second even though she and her two other friends that sit with her have PE together.

They’ve sat there at that same table almost religiously ever since they were freshman.

“I don’t share with them when I go off campus,” Elizondo said, “but I still go with people when I leave school.”

He sat while picking at his peperoni pizza, and talked aloud with his brown, turquoise and pink hair falling in front of the thin frames of his glasses.

JEELE

|Naje Bryant |Prepared Co-Editor “We just talk and eat,” sophomore Mohamed Hassan said, slapping his hand on the cold table.

According to junior Said Mohamed this is the group’s normal table of gathering.

“We sit here all the time,” Mohamed said, pulling at his red plaid flannel.

There were about twelve people at the table talking basketball and how open gym was going, and all seemed interested in the conversation. “[We’re] friends,” Mohamed said. “We hang out almost every day.”

Unlike Mohamed who had a burger.

“I like to be different,” Mohamed said, smiling.

MOHAMED

NGUYEN

|Julian O’Francia |EatenStaff “These are my friends, Alexis and Rebecca,” freshman Maybelle Rodrigo said.

Once someone sits in a certain spot frequently, it starts to be a tradition.

“Alexis is the first to grab the table,” Rodrigo said. “We sit here all the time.”

Sometimes their table does get taken.

“We look for another seat,” Rodrigo said.

“Either outside or the third floor in the halls.”

RODRIGO

30MinutesLeftoversHandled

HEY! EAT THIS!

ARROW reporters grabbed thirteen trash bags from the lunchroom and sorted through teriyaki rice bowls, ranch-coated pepperoni pieces, and squished kiwi halves to find the absolute and utter truth: enough wasted food to make at least 25 full lunches.* If you’re anything like us, you’ll look at this spread of food, stare in disbelief at the hamburger topped with peaches, and forever after have a different approach to lunch. *One full lunch equals one chocolate or regular carton of milk, an entrée and a ½ cup fruit or veggie.

28- empty juice cups

2- full juice

20-salads

cups

1

13- full milk

47- half full

158-empty milk

156- large trays

160- small trays

Here lie casualties from the battlefield known as the cafeteria. Bodies mangled, these brave lunches have suffered enough. Here, their voices finally get heard.

Lined up like untouched soldiers, ten completely unopened Treetop apple bags with three full Boghosian raisin boxes reminisce about the time they wasted in the bottom of a trash bin. Last time they were together was the clean salad bar, hoping to give energy to tired and hungry teenagers. They never fulfilled their potential.

Five individual pizza slices, one vegetarian and the res from their family circles to serve students. Two were halfw fate of transforming into mechanical energy but were toss probably wanted to catch up with their buddies. Alongsi is a bag of Jo-Jo potatoes, including three spears that es never experienced the joy of swimming in ranch, ba

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Words From the Woman Who Made the Food (That Some of You Threw Away) |Vanessa Abenojar |Editor in Chief Lunch ladies come to school at 5:30 a.m. to prepare about 500-600 lunches.

“We try to prepare enough every day and try to do different selections,” lunch lady Maxine Hino said.

This is Hino’s 24th year in the district. In the 16 years she’s worked at Renton High, she’s seen many changes.

“Honestly, I think the food quality is excellent,” Hino said. “It’s better than it used to be.”

HINO

To comply with government regulations, students’ lunches must fulfill new requirements. “They have to have 2 oz. of protein, 2 breads (carbohydrates) and a minimum of a half cup of fruits or veggies,” Hino said. “And every day there’s always chicken or beef dishes.”

After long hours of preparing food so that hundreds of students can go through their day without starving, the reward is in itself.

“Doing our job is very fulfilling giving kids their requirements,” Hino said.

“I feel like most kids enjoy the food.”

101- forks, 3- knives, 11- spoons

22- bowls w/o food 19- bowls w/ food Mirjam Amstutz photo

Six burgers, wrapped in pretty silver foil with yellow checkers, tossed aside and uneaten, exited the kitchen. Two came out wrapped; one was half eaten. It used to be whole until a bully (we imagine) sacrificed it and humiliated it by topping it off with peaches.

st pepperoni, parted ways way toward meeting their sed aside by students who ide these orphaned pizzas scaped from their bag and arbeque sauce or ketchup.

Twenty-five empty Treetop apple bags fulfilled their dreams of giving growing teenagers the sustenance they needed to power through the the day. Along with these apples, two empty Boghosian raisin cartons lay on their side, resting after a job well done.

Fifteen apple slices found themselves alone, and one apple with a chunk bitten off suffered. Seven oranges remained unpeeled keeping their vitamin C wrapped up behind their leathery skin.

Nineteen kiwis, split from their other halves, sobbed for their wasted sweet and sour goodness.

LeftoversHandledDigested

TWO SIDES OF A LUNCH BREAK

Where do teachers go to eat lunch? Here’s how two teachers spend their mid-day break: by themselves or with the company of students

Jesse Olson’s Independence

| Queneshia Lee | Copy Editor Being the new kid on the block has its ups and downs, and for teachers it is no different.

New woodshop and construction teacher Jesse Olson knows exactly how it feels to be new and uses his lunch time to complete some tasks unique to new teachers and some tasks common to many teachers.

“Eating in my office allows me to finish work I was unable to complete,” Olson said.

His daily lunch consists of either a turkey or ham sandwich, nacho cheese Doritos and some piece of fruit, either a banana or an apple. Olson does visit the teacher’s lounge

Rosemary Shaw’s Lunch Posse

| Queneshia Lee | Copy Editor Sitting down at one of the desks to eat her chicken flavored Top Ramen and drink her Diet Coke, history teacher Rosemary Shaw mingles about with a few familiar student faces during lunch.

“I do eat with a few students,” Shaw said. “I do not eat in the cafeteria because of the fact that you go from having four to five kids coming to see you to having about a hundred.

It can become uncomfortable.”

Swarms of teenagers are not the only thing keeping Shaw away from the cafeteria. The smell is another factor.

“It smells of all the different foods,” Shaw said. “You don’t simply have one food being cooked. You have like ten, and all those smells joined together doesn’t smell refreshing. You

Andrea Buenbrazo photo

during lunch, not to eat there but to use the microwave.

“Being in my office is very comfortable for me,” Olson said. “I still don’t really know anybody here so I’m just trying to adjust.”

During many lunches, yearbook advisor Susan Johnson and anatomy teacher Natalie Kolczynski visit Olson.

“They come in just to check up on me,” Olson said. “They are very welcoming.”

Olson seems to be very satisfied with the lunch schedule here at Renton. Although he does wish one thing would make its way through the cafeteria doors.

“I wish there was a Taco Bell built in the cafeteria,” Olson said. “Even though it’s not the healthiest choice to eat it is my favorite fast food place.”

“Everybody needs fuel,” Olson said. “Lunch is that source of fuel and I make sure I eat so I can be energized during the day and able to interact and teach my students.”

can still smell the food that was made the day before.”

Shaw spoke a bit about where the faculty members eat.

“To be honest, the teachers’ lounge is almost always empty,” Shaw said. “Each department has their own little place for all of them to meet and enjoy their lunch. It’s a time for them to see how each other’s day is going and what’s new outside of school.”

Teachers eat with one another not because they don’t like students but because it’s a time for them to catch up on grading, planning lessons or simply just to talk to other adults.

“My room is the place for me,” Shaw said. “Every once in a while it’s okay for students to come up and chat with me, but sometimes I just want to be alone.”

“In the end I love my students.”

Queneshia Lee photo

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‘Real Friends Eat Each Other’s Food’

Andrea Buenbraz

o photo illustrati

on

From the windows to the floor, meet the personalities pivotal to lunchtime enjoyment, including the realistic-yet-positive custodian and the sophomore boy willing to share his food The Boy With the Hand That Feeds

The Boy Who Never Eats By Himself

|Annie Kwan |Leftover Editor Moochers: those too lazy or too cheap to get their own food and take bits and pieces from other people.

“I don’t really care about moochers, as long as I know them and they’re friends,” sophomore Dylan Macri said.

The generous redhead sits with his best friends—mostly band members—in a circular table.

“I usually bring a simple lunch: a sandwich and snacks,” Macri said. “My usual moocher is someone who sits at my table.”

Even though Macri is willing to share with his friends, he’s not willing to share with just anyone.

“I only let my friends mooch off me,” Macri said. “Real friends eat each other’s food!”

|Brittney Nguyen |Ads & Business Manager Junior Brian Phillips is never alone at lunch.

“I normally eat lunch with Lander Renrick and Chantrell Taylor,” Phillips said, “or I meet up with the bros in the commons.”

“The bros” are junior Trey Love, junior Byron White and junior Ernie Davis.

Not everyone stays at the school for lunch; people go to different places.

“Lander, Chantrell and I go anywhere we feel like eating that day,” Phillips said.

People work on different tasks during lunch: completing homework, nibbling snacks, staring at the walls.

“We have conversations during lunch that are funny,” Phillips said, “and too inappropriate for the school paper.”

PHILLIPS

The Girl Who Finally Sits With Friends

The Man Who Cleans Everything Up

|Evelyn Fitz |30 Minutes Staff “In elementary school, no one would want to sit with me [at lunch],” junior Nailah Eubanks said, “and when I did sit at a table filled with people they looked at me funny and called me names to get me to leave.”

Even though the bullying wasn’t like in the movies— where the “nerds” get milk or lunch dumped on them—the situation still escalated.

“It got to the point that I would eat in teachers’ classrooms. It got so bad once that I ate in the bathroom, which was pretty gross, but I never did that again,” Eubanks said. “I guess it was because I didn’t do my hair. Everyone told me I had ugly hair and that I was ugly.”

Memories from this time affect Eubanks even today.

“Sometimes, when I look in the mirror and I remember all the things others have said to me, I feel ugly. And I start to find imperfections in myself,” Eubanks said. “In middle school I didn’t have confidence because of the bullying at lunch but now I do because I feel I’m prettier.”

Now, Eubanks sits at lunch with her friends. She doesn’t bully people and tries to call people out on their bullying if she sees it because she knows how it feels.

“I would stick up for anyone I saw being bullied.”

|Mona Orejudos |30 Minutes Editor It takes about two hours to clean the lunch room for the next school day,” head custodian Jim Pullis said.

Pullis tries to clean a bit here and there between lunches but sometimes that’s impossible.

“There is a lot of trash and leftover food I get to clean up,” Pullis said, “but sometimes the Life Management classes help us out.”

Lauren Hasson-Kats’s Life Management students help dispose of trash in the dumpsters out back behind the gym; they also crush boxes to be recycled by the end of the school day.

“If they aren’t there then cleaning time takes longer than usual,” Pullis said.

With mops and brooms, Pullis sweeps up the un-eaten food abandoned by previous owners: warm lettuce leaves, crushed potato spears and other items on the floor, six or sixty inches from the trash cans.

“It takes a while to completely clean and scrub down the lunch room,” Pullis said, “but I would not ever change my job. If I do then it would ruin the routine I’ve had for twenty years.”

EUBANKS

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HandledDigestedEateN FIVE REASONS TO HATE CHOCOLATE MILK LIKE ME

AND FIVE REASONS TO LOVE THE GREAT WHITE CARTON OF UNFLAVORED MILK AS MUCH AS I DO |Evelyn Fitz |30 Minute Staff I don’t have anything against chocolate milk as a whole. I can drink white milk mixed with Hershey’s chocolate syrup all day long, but I cannot—AND I WILL NOT—drink school cafeteria chocolate milk.

The milk probably comes from dead cows rolled in cocoa powder.

1. IT TASTES LIKE THERE IS COW BLOOD IN IT. Yes, you heard correctly. The chocolate milk tastes like cow blood, that so called “drink of the gods.” They use brown powder (or whatever they call the chocolate flavoring stuff nowadays) to cover up the taste, which they do miserably. So next time you decide to get a nice cold swig of that chocolaty goodness remember: COW BLOOD. 2. THE BROWN CARTON IS UGLY. The color of cardboard does not make it appetizing; it just makes it look like the color of poop. And that design! Grass is supposed to be green, not brown. It’s just not working, unless you are trying to advertise a business that picks up dog feces.

3. IT’S ALL LIES. I know the carton says “fat free,” but I know it’s lying. Disgusting artificial sewer water goop cannot be fat free. When you finish drinking it there is that left over sugary residue stuff at the bottom, and what do you think sugar granules turn into in the dark of night?

FAT. 4. THOSE TINY BITS OF SUGAR. You feel the grains, the tiny bits, when you swallow it down. And sometimes there are huge lumps and YOU CAN ACTUALLY CHEW THEM. It is literally nothing but chocolate snow slush.

5. ARTIFICIAL FLAVORING. It’s not even real chocolate. It’s powder. POWDER. It’s not even chocolate flavoring either it’s something weird that’s close to chocolate but anyone five generations away from a chocolate connoisseur will

FITZ

notice it’s a bit off. You can taste the evil artificial syrupy flavor. Chocolate milk is nothing but a lie in a carton.

But white milk is completely different. I repeat.

WHITE MILK IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. You should love it.

1. White milk tastes free of unwanted animal fluids. coughcoughbloodcoughcough. White milk tastes refreshing, cold and easy to swallow.

FREE OF SUGAR CHUNKS! And disgusting extra flavoring that could get lodged in your esophagus.

2. White milk doesn’t cause school cafeterias to close down because parents hate it, like chocolate milk does. Chocolate milk has been OUTLAWED in such cities as Berkeley, Calif., and Washington D.C. and the only thing that those kids are allowed to drink is - guess what - WHITE MILK! 3. It doesn’t have all those unwanted extra calories you get from chocolate milk, which are an extra 20 calories. So if you ladies and gentlemen want to slim down, I suggest you put down the chocolate milk because according to the nutrient facts on the carton you get 22g of sugar in ONE carton. That’s equal to your daily serving of sugar. So any sugars after that are extra sugar, and if health class has taught us anything, it’s that EXTRA SUGAR = GAIN IN POUNDS. 4. It’s visually appealing. All that white pureness looks so silky. You could take a bath in that beautiful miracle and come out looking like a porcelain doll.

Well, maybe.

5. It’s white milk. It’s familiar, and nothing would make your mother prouder than if you drank it at school without her bidding.

Now, go and make your mother proud, and raise your glass to the Great White Carton of Unflavored Milk.

The Once Upon a Time Jr. Lunch Lady |Annie Kwan |Left Overs Editor As a fifth grader at Kimball Elementary School, I followed the tradition of giving up a portion of my class time and my lunch break to serve my fellow students meals.

I was assigned to serve kindergarteners lunch for a week with a classmate. This might sound dreadful, but I was okay with it. I got to cut a chunk of my math class to help children open chicken drummies sealed with plastic, glued too tight for their baby strength. Who cares if I didn’t get to eat lunch?

On the first day of my eleven-year-old lunch lady adventure, I paid no attention to the rules about fractions being forced into my brain. I was excited to see the five year olds. I jumped up when I was called in the middle of my teacher’s lesson on least common

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ntos photo

denominators.

The usual lunch ladies gave us two big clear, noisy plastic gloves to wear while serving.

I shoved them in my blue jean pockets. Then we carried several heavy milk crates to the squeaky lunch carts filled with stone hard drumsticks and sticky apple sauce.

At lunch time, the lunch ladies and one-time lunch ladies (like me) waited in the long hallway behind the three linked classrooms. We peered in the classroom waiting to push our icky silver trolley into the center of the room.

We felt the hungry monsters stares while setting up. They stormed over the moment the teachers gave them permission. We sweated, passing out lunches from the heat of the chicken drumsticks. Once we passed out everything to the starving kids, the cleanup was left to the lunch ladies. We did a more enjoyable job of helping cute five-year-olds opening milk, apple sauce and entrées.

We received a few slurred, mumbled ‘thanks’ from them but couldn’t help but squeal at their cuteness as we corrected those who didn’t say thanks.

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After a year of separation, isolation and desertion, three friends reunited |Abigail Cetino |Eaten Editor I didn’t want to start my high school life known as the awkward freshman who sits alone in the lunch room. Luckily, I never had to worry about that fictional nightmare. I quickly found my friends and we formed our own table in the corner: Alicia, Evelyn, Jedric, and myself.

Eventually another boy joined us; once we got him talking we discovered a new perspective on him. We enjoyed his visual outlook on the human body. There’s no need to add any details.

More people sat with us and the table began to over fill.

The “founders” and I evacuated the table and took refuge in our health teacher’s classroom.

We’d still get lunch in the cafeteria, glaring at those occupying our former homestead.

CETINO

The quiet of the classroom would get to me and I’d leave to go socialize in the commons.

I would still check up on my friends. The commons opened a new view on what might happen during lunch.

As a sophomore, I’d spend most of my days off campus or in the commons.

When I didn’t go off campus I’d chill in the commons with a group of friends. During the warm days in the spring we’d go out in the courtyard. The warm breeze carried out the tunes strummed from our guitars and ukuleles as we sang Bruno Mars covers and danced along.

After third period Japanese my junior year I scanned the commons and was upset to find no visible friends in my lunch. I was greeted by a familiar face: Evelyn.

It was as if I had traveled back in time. Shortly after, we had found Alicia too.

This time around the three of us have grown closer, even though we didn’t hang out the previous year. The “founders” and I were together again, and we won’t let the same thing happen again.

Renton Flower Shop “The original”

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425-255-8693

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& Boutique 425-572-5844 Local Business Supporting Local Charities

Mon, Wed-Fri 10-6 Sat 10-5 Sun. 12-5 Closed Tues

12615 Renton ave S Seattle, WA 98178

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e-mail: skyway@nwlink.com

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2834 NE Sunset Blvd Renton, WA 98056 Mon-Fri 10am-7pm Sat 10am-6:30pm Sun 10am-6:30pm

Clear 4G wireless internet- $34.99/mon.

No contract- $14.95 Prepaid cell phone plan- $30 for 1,500 min

206.772.1211

Mon: CLOSED Fri: 11-8 Tues: 11-7PM Sat: 11-6 Wed: 11-7PM Sun: 11-5 Thurs: 11-7PM

DigestedEaten

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Abigail Cetino and Mirj

am Amstutz graphic

Vanessa Abenojar ate lunch in the stairwell alone.............................................................................................................................................Editor-in-Chief Ksenia Ivanova wears a socially acceptable version of a comforter to school.....................................................................................Managing Editor Queneshia Lee is going to explode if ARROW staff members don’t listen to me .............................................................................Copy/Intro Editor Eli De Los Santos needs more followers so everyone go follow me on Twitter and Instagram!...........................................................Photo Editor Alex Kalinin is full time wrestler.............................................................................................................................................................................................Arts Editor Brittney Nguyen is always hungry!!!............................................................................................................................................................................Ads Manager Mirjam Amstutz likes chocolate chip cookies...................................................................................................................................................Ads Co-Manager Angelica Nicolas I prefer Chipotle over Mucho Burrito..........................................................................................................................................Cover Editor Amanda Dyer loved green eggs and ham on Dr. Suess’ day in elementary school.............................................................................Prepared Editor Naje Bryant wants to walk in rain without my hair messing up.............................................................................................................Prepared Co-Editor Monalynn Orejudos won’t let her wall down.................................................................................................................................................30 Minutes Editor FINE PRINT ARROW is an open forum produced by gibberish language speaking, down and dirty getting, personal bubble popping, instgram photo posting, dance partying, food hoarding moochers. They all go to Renton High School at 400 S. 2nd St., Renton, WA, 98057, famous for its $1 cookies from the student store and the unavoidable senior presentations. The editor-in-chief is Vanessa Abenojar. You can contact her at vanessa.abenojar@gmail.com.

ARROW is printed eight times a year by Pacific Publishing Company in Seattle, Washington.

Word processing, graphics and layouts are created on Microsoft Office 2007 and Adobe Creative Suite 3 programs. ARROW has a press run of 2,000.

The staff welcomes letters to the editor and will publish letters which meet our standards of good taste (as space permits). Letters must be signed. ARROW reserves the right to edit letters, though every attempt will be made to preserve original content. Unsigned

Annie Kwan is excited for the glitchtest in AC3 (Assassin’s Creed 3)...........................................................................................................Leftovers Editor Andrea Buenbrazo says the best way to keep a secret is to tell the world, but jokingly...................................................................................Handled Editor Tony Nguyen I love fast food...........................................................................................................................................................................................Handled Co-Editor Andrea Dyer liked recess more than lunch........................................................................................................................................................................ Wasted Editor Alicia Quarles School is not your makeout spot. Stop. ............................................................................................................................................Wasted Co-Editor Abigail Cetino Whales are scary. They’re like, huge...............................................................................................................................................................Eaten Editor Norma Campos Elementary school lunch was actually the only time I ate school lunch...........................................................................................Cover Staff Aidan Chaloupka Can I have that in atomic?...................................................................................................................................................................Prepared Staff Evelyn Fitz hates everyone, well not everyone.............................................................................................................................................................30 Minutes Staff Rafael Agas believes that elementary school lunch was a crime against humanity.......................................................................................................Leftovers Staff Derek Smith is a cheese zombie........................................................................................................................................................................................................................Adviser

editorials and editorial cartoons represent the majority view of ARROW editorial board and do not represent the views of the Renton School District or RHS. Opinions, commentaries, satires, and perspectives are the views of the writers and artists, not the Renton School District or ARROW editorial board.

ARROW is financed by advertising based on size-determined rates. These range from $20-$80.