How do you feel about school lunch? Are we getting all the necessities? Is there anything we need to change? Here are the questions I am looking to figure out through this article. A big question that is asked about our school lunch is, are we getting everything that we need. Zach Maronopolous, a student here at IHS said “yes but the only problem is the proportion size for protein is not enough for an average student but there are plenty of options for fruit and salads and plenty of nutrients” when asked the question. This then proposes a big question about the lack of portion size and the effect it can have on students.
I interviewed the head of the lunch department here at IHS about if we are getting all the necessities in our school lunch. Her response was “USDA has standards for school lunches that must be followed. We have to make sure the students are getting a well rounded nutritious lunch everyday. By offering multiple choices at breakfast and lunch we hope that all students find something they like and are able to participate in the breakfast and lunch program. All meals should include fresh fruit, fresh/cooked vegetables, a healthy protein, a whole grain product, and we also love to see students grab milk.” So our school lunches are getting all of the necessities but there is a clear problem in the serving size we are getting.
Another question that has arised is should students be getting a say in what our lunches are. Should the students be choosing the lunches? Should they start taking student suggestions? I asked the head of the lunch department about this to see what she thinks. She then stated “We love student input. Please keep in mind that there are nutritional standards that must be followed and also a cost factor. However, there is no such thing as a bad suggestion!” So it looks like there can start to be a student suggestion as long as it follows the USDA guidelines. This can be started by the lunch program or the Principal sending out weekly google forms asking for suggestions and the most popular one that still follows the USDA guidelines should be put into the school lunch schedule.
What does a typical day look like for the lunch program? Does a lot of work go into making the school lunches? I again asked Meghan Persson the head lunch lady at our school in an interview I did with her and her response was “Ahhh, I would love a typical day. Staff arrives between 6:15 and 7:00. We set up to serve breakfast which ends around 7.30. We break down breakfast and start preparing the multiple choices that students get for lunch. We serve lunch to students over 5 lunches. We then clean up from the day.” They have to serve lunch not only for the high school but for the middle school as well so they need A LOT of food in order to make that happen so that could be why the proportion size is so low for everyone. So is the solution for low proportion size just getting more food to make? Do we have the money for that? Will that cause a problem? This is a much bigger complex problem than we think. I believe from the school administration’s help combined with the lunch programs help I believe that we can solve all of these problems by raising the budget for school lunches, start taking student lunch suggestions and increasing the proportion size for everyone.
