[Opinion] Some Students Unsatisfied with School Lunch

Everyone on Earth has different taste buds, they may perceive a food more positively or negatively than if someone else were to eat it.

Throughout their time attending CHAH, students have tried the school lunch served to them. However, do they actually even like it? After interviewing several students, most of them responded with claims that the lunch provided to them is unfavorable to their appetite.

It is the responsibility of the NSLP (National School Lunch Program) to give school cafeterias’ lunches to provide to students. It has been constantly talked about online how school lunch is always either horribly inedible, or very cheap. No school has done anything to even combat this stereotype–they simply leave the lunch as is in its terrible condition.

In CHAH’s cafeteria, hungry students line up every school day to be served lunch by the lunch ladies. The food given may vary from chicken to grilled cheese. Pizza being the only outlier, it is served every Monday.

With the many different options the school may provide to its students, it is only natural there are some meals more popular than the other, causing rare moments where the lunch ladies must begin to serve a different food, for the last one ran out.

My first interview was with Christopher Islas (‘26) who eats the lunch given to him every single day. With how often he accepts the lunch, you’d imagine he likes it. However that’s not the case, he had to say, “I only eat it because I’m hungry,” he went on to exaggerate, “I don’t want to starve to death.” Islas is undoubtedly unhappy with the food he must consume purely out of necessity. If given the choice to control the lunch, he said, “I’d make it so [the school would] always give these chicken spheres.” That was the lunch served at the time of the interview. He went on to add, “I would make it so [the school] always and only give strawberry milk.”

My next interview was with Denzel Gonzalez (‘26) who actually doesn’t take school lunch, he claimed, “Not often. Normally I don’t eat.” Now, when asked if he would’ve consecutively eaten the lunch if given better choices, he responded, “Yes, I would’ve.” This highlights just how unappealing the lunch is, Gonzalez refuses to eat the lunch due the lack of better options. If he had control over school lunch options Gonzalez said, “Honestly, just better stuff, not like microwaved stuff.”

Unlike my other two interviewees, this one was with Jeffery Henriquez (‘26) who finds a majority of the lunch likable, he said, “ Honestly… Yeah, I like it.” As you can see Henriquez does like school lunch. Although there are still brief moments where he didn’t enjoy what was served. Henriquez added, “A quarter of a time I eat it because I have to.” However, just like the rest, he would still prefer to have different options, he explained in great detail, “If I controlled school lunch, first of all I wouldn’t include this stale stuff,” he pointed to today’s servings, “like whatever this is. I would get rid of the stuff people don’t eat like the rice.”

Personally, I rarely take the lunch, but when I do, there has never been a time I ate everything placed on the tray. For me, the food is always either too hot or too cold. But there’s more to this dilemma than temperature. In my opinion, none of the food looks appealing or is tasty. 

As it has been made abundantly clear, the lunch we’re being given is unfavorable to some students. Some students don’t enjoy the lunch and suffer as they don’t eat anything throughout the whole period, despite the fact their time in the cafeteria is meant to be spent doing so. This school should take into consideration about changing the school lunch provided to more widely loved meals such as french fries or hotdogs.