School Lunches
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October 12, 2009
Filed under Opinion
What is your outlook on school food? Some students here at Mountain View prefer home lunches, and others like cafeteria food. Many students believe that school lunches are artificial and don’t like the ingrediants. According to cafeteria staff, about one third of the school eats school lunch.
Students who don’t like the food have lots of ideas about what could be changed. “I don’t like cafeteria food very much. But I do like the chicken and fries. I would rather go somewhere for lunch though. It would be cool if they had a McDonald’s in Mountain View.” Says sophomore Megan Teeter. Some students have favorite school lunches “I’m very picky when it comes to my food. But the tacos here are delicious.” Says junior Orion Honaker.
Cafeteria workers do more than you think though. It’s not their fault that the lunches are artificial to some students, they have no choice, or money to spend on actual good and healthy food. In a recent NPR radio story on school lunch programs, cafeteria workers lament that they have to buy their own equipment, and pay for fuel for the trucks that come with the supplies. Cafeteria workers have a very small budget that includes a lot of items beyond food.
“There is really nothing we can do to improve school lunches, we don’t have the money to get any higher quality foods.” Says Cheryl Rogers cafeteria worker here at MVHS.
Viewpoints asked Cheryl Rogers on average how many students eat school lunches.
“A lot. It’s hard to say exactly how many. Probably a couple hundred at least.” (As she laughs.)
Cheryl Rogers explained how school lunches here are prepared. “We receive them in bulk and mostly frozen. Some are just packaged. Everything is heated by normal heat, like a stove of microwave. We hand serve all of it. We put the sandwiches together. Really the only thing we don’t put together is our salads. The food is prepared decently. It just isn’t the highest quality.”
The modern school cafeteria is not what the cafeterias of old used to be. There is very little if any cooking done. Food comes in and is heated, then served. This may not sound like much. But cafeteria workers here do work very hard for us and many wish they could do more with their limited resources. Students do not appreciate the limitations that the cafeteria is under in trying to serve them meals on a budget with little equipment and a minuscule budget. Whether you brown bag it or buy lunch here, beware that the staff of our cafeteria is working hard for you.
By: Kassi Walker
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