"Look, it's time!" One of the boys shoved his phone in the teacher's face. "Can we go now?"
Before the teacher could respond, her students stormed out of the classroom. Kids sprinted down the staircase, through the door, and across the turf. There were only a few moments before the lunch line stretched beyond control.
Students dispersed among the tables: some isolated themselves with a few friends, others went inside to school clubs, some even played sports out on the field. All in common, each student surrounded themselves with a type of lunch food.
But the menu seemed to have changed - the cheese-filled breadsticks served with a side of marinara sauce, sprinkled with little cheesy bits, were replaced with dry noodle meals. The spicy chicken sandwiches were replaced with cold corn dogs. The greasy pizzas were replaced with even greasier pizzas.
Students were no longer finishing their meals.
Every day, students are given a lunch period meant for relaxation from the rigorous studies of their academic lives. During this time, students who haven’t brought their own lunch are faced with a choice: don’t eat, or buy the school lunch. The students who take their chances, starving stomachs and all, on the school lunch each have an experience of their own. Some happen to be positive, while many others tend to have a less-than-adequate report to give. A study taken by Matthew Evans, Kaycee Steimke, Joshua Prahovic, and Zane Freitas shows that an overwhelming majority of students have a low rate of satisfaction when buying and eating a school lunch. 70.9% of students from High Tech High North County have bought a school lunch at least once and 75% of students gave the school lunch a rating of 2 or lower (based on a 5 point scale). The study also asked students how full they feel after eating a school lunch. Also based off a 5 point scale, 89.2% of students gave a rating of 3 or lower, which essentially means an overwhelming amount of students don't feel satisfied with the school lunches and don’t feel satisfied after eating them.
Interviews were also conducted with students who responded to the survey. With this, we received a more in-depth perspective of what some of the students thought about the school lunch as a whole and changes they would wish to make. Below are survey responses provided by anonymous students.
What would you change about the school lunches?
"Vegetarian options. I don't get lunch at school anymore and wait until school ends for food."
"Make (them) appetizing. Whatever subscription lunch service we use currently seems to be devoid of quality. Also, the only thing I've seen the cucumbers used for are frisbees or for murals. If making the lunches more delicious also results in an increase in unhealthiness, so be it. As long as we provide a healthy option (maybe cheaper for incentive reasons), we are in the green."
"Everything about it. It makes me and my friends sick most of the time, the fruit is never ripe and is usually sat in dirty water. The milk is gray instead of white, they even give out pizza which is bad because it’s like 99% bread. They give out food that doesn’t even look cooked. I normally have stomach aches after eating it and it makes me thirsty because of its high carb count. Also the lunch providers don’t bring enough to provide for everyone most of the time. The noodle meals they give out are dry and unappetizing. I like the old lunch providers because their food was actually good."
"Honestly add more salad options, they're really good but I feel bad taking them because there are so few."
"Bigger portions, riper fruit, chocolate milk, and bigger selection of daily lunches."
"Maybe get a better lunch program that makes people feel full, possibly get in contact with Oceanside High's Lunch Program."
"The lunches do not look appetizing nor nutritional. Make lunches that look and feel nutritional to all students."
"Allow more snack options to be available. These snack options are helpful when you aren't able to eat what they serve and you feel a bit more hungry still. Also snack options are a great idea anyways because it can increase more productivity in the brain before it slowly powers down."
"I would add more flavor to the lunches because some of the meals are really bland. And I would have bigger portions for the meals, because after I eat, I don't get full at all that much."
"Some of the food on some of the days sounds/looks/tastes unappealing to the point where I skip lunch that day and eat from what my friends are willing to give. When I was paying it felt like I was paying more than my food's worth."
"The food options are all bland and sometimes have no nutritional value. I see most of the times that my peers will get their food and not even it eat it. They say that it tastes really bad or that it smells. I agree with the fact that sometimes it does really smell bad. The meat is concerning because most of the time you can't even tell what it is. I've also noticed that the portions are pretty small. Possibly offer granola bars."
"Everything. The portion size, the price, the actual food."