Lunching and munching

Students comment on new changes to cafeteria menu

Madelyn Lerew lerewmad000@hsestudents.org

Lines that sprawl out across three cafeterias bring students united toward one goal: buying the school lunch. This outpouring of demand is in large part due to how accessible these meals are. Junior Ben Jones is one to agree with this statement as he prefers the quality of his homemade lunches more.

“Having the choice of bringing something I want from home is better, but the easy access from school is nice,” Jones said. “It’s easy because I don’t have to make it myself, whereas packing from home, I’m gonna enjoy my meal more.”

Despite not getting much choice in the options provided, students have come to love dishes that are prepared and served on a regular basis. The famous pizza calzone is well-loved with both Jones and junior Eli Duke citing it as their favorite. Other good options include the nachos, which are sophomore Daniella Cerezo’s favorite, and taco triangles, a top-rated meal by sophomore Dani Davis.

While some items receive high praise, others fall short of praise. Student encounters with the school lunches have made for good stories despite not providing excitement about the meal on a day-to-day basis.

“It hasn’t been the greatest dining experience, I think school lunches are very ‘mid’,” Duke said. “They have their ups, they have their downs, but neither the ups nor the downs are too bad or too good, making them very, very mid.”

A common complaint from students has been the decline seen in the variety of options being made available. Repetition of the same type of food in different variations is a recurring event.

“[School lunches] are kind of not good, they used to be better,” Davis said. “Now it’s just different variations of pizza and pizza calzone and there’s not really variety anymore.”

This decline in the diversity of meals is not something that the school, specifically cafeteria workers, take the fall for. A plethora of outside factors has put the school into this conundrum.

“Before we were here, they used to have, by the CCA, a sushi place,” Jones said. “They did smoothies and sushi on Thursdays for a little bit. COVID has definitely impacted the school food situation.”

Despite COVID-19 taking heavy hits on school food as a whole, with it being responsible for shutting down the CCA snack bar, steps are being made to course correct back to what it once was. The Tiger Bites snack bar opened on Jan. 30 outside of Cafe A providing students with a place to purchase food during study halls, TI and after school. Another problem faced by the school when trying to provide lunch to a majority of the building is the number of people doing the work to make this happen.

“I feel like they do an okay job,” Cerezo said. “I think they’re more just trying to make sure everyone has something. They couldn’t do a better job, just because of how many staff members there are.”

Under-staffing places stress on existing cafeteria workers trying to create lunches without full support. That along with budgetary restrictions affects what food is being made.

“[The school does] what they can,” Duke said. “I know they’re a little understaffed, but I know the budget’s thin. A lot of the time they’re buying packaged goods and it feels like they’re doing the bare minimum. I think it all does come down to funding which is kind of out of their hands at this moment.”

When it comes to pricing some believe that the going rate for lunches is too high, with them costing three dollars.

“I get discounted lunch, but I don’t think it’s worth paying three dollars for this [school lunch] because some people don’t even eat all of it,” Davis said. “I don’t eat all this, I don’t drink all my milk and stuff.”

While some view the amount of food as too much, others view it as a meager sum. The culmination of the different items required to make it a full meal does not always create something filling.

Michelle Obama helped advocate for the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act which helped provide more students access to meals. The act also made new changes to the menu which included more healthy options.

“[The school] does a good job [in providing healthy meals],” Davis said.

“I feel like I’m not eating enough,” Jones said. “I would normally get two entrees because then I would feel full.

I’m a growing boy, I need to eat a big meal. I also think nutritionally Mrs. Obama did a lot. It’s still not very healthy, but I don’t really care.”

In 2010, former first lady

“They make you get a fruit or a vegetable, they make you get milk to make your bones strong and they make you get an entree.”

To help the currently employed cafeteria workers HSE schools is looking to hire more food service workers, and are advertising it on the district website. Those looking to apply should go to hseschools.org to find more information.