School Lunches: Are They As Bad As We Think?
What’s for lunch? That’s a question we’ve all probably asked a million times in our lives. When it comes to lunch, that’s many people’s favorite time of the day. You get a break in the middle of your busy day to stop, chat, and eat. The love of lunch is especially found in students. Countless times, I’ve heard someone ask a kid, “What’s your favorite subject in school?” to which the student will respond, “Lunch!” For years, decades even, school-aged children have looked forward to their lunch period. So, then, what happened?
For anyone confused, in recent years, there’s been a decline in the quality of school lunches across the country. Viral videos began to trend showing downright revolting food being served in school cafeterias. It’s no wonder many students stopped eating the lunch provided by the school. Some (including myself) have opted for bringing their own lunch. Others simply don’t eat, which is a much larger problem.
Really, the question at the root of the school lunch issue isn’t just “what happened”. It’s a question that one of my interviewees brought up when I asked her about the problems that we run into when it comes to school lunches: “Why aren’t kids eating?”
Well, there’s no simple way to answer that question. Between dietary issues, be it food allergies or sensitivities, or an eating disorder, as well as the teenage mind in general, there are so many things that factor into why kids aren’t eating school lunch. The interviewee that highlighted this point, Mrs. Wassner, who teaches nutrition here at Riley, mentioned another factor: Many young people have a warped view of what good nutrition is. “[They don’t] understand what a good nutritious plate of food looks like.” Wassner explained. “Not just ‘well I'm going to have pancakes for breakfast.’ Well, where's your fruit? Where is your glass of milk? ‘I don't like milk.’ Why don't you like milk? Then if you're not going to drink milk where are you going to get your calcium?”
If the phrase “part of this nutritious breakfast!” sound familiar, it’s probably because you remember hearing it quite often when you would watch TV as a child. From early on, we were hearing things like that on commercials for Apple Jacks and Pop-Tarts. But as a little kid, we didn’t see that and think, “Oh yeah, they have a bowl of cereal, but also a glass of OJ and a banana! That must be what a good breakfast is!” Instead, you probably went to your mom and begged her to buy that new Pop-Tart flavor so you could eat it by itself before (or on your way) to school every day for the next month.
Mrs. Wassner had a similar thought. “I ask kids, write down the meals, come up with a meal that you would serve, and… they can't come up with stuff. Their snack is fruit snacks and a cookie. Where is an apple? Where is an orange? …Where's the nutrition? And it's not just the food but how much they eat. You can't have just one little Pop-Tart for breakfast at 6:00 in the morning at home, and if you have C lunch, you're starving by that [point].” How does the school try to combat this?
If you’ve ever gone to breakfast in the school cafeteria, you’ve probably heard time and time again, “You need a fruit or a juice.” Because the school lunch program is funded by the government, school meals have to meet certain requirements. As Mrs. Wassner told me, “They have to provide like a fruit option for every meal, they have to do whole grains, so you can get a whole grain Pop Tart with fruit filling. You would not be able to get a regular Pop-Tart without the whole grain.”
I’m sure you’re probably sick of me talking about breakfast since this article is supposed to be about school lunches. Getting back to that, as teenagers, we often like to over exaggerate. Granted, some of those viral videos where the food looks gross are real. However, I don’t believe they’re the norm. As a senior, I can remember how the food was during middle school and my freshman year. As fellow senior Chris Jackles put it, “It was a lot of crap honestly.”
The food was less than good, and part of the problem was that our school district was running it and not outsourcing, which led to more issues. “Our own food and nutrition just… was having some struggles. There was a day we ran out of food,” Dr. Cummings, Superintendent of South Bend School told me. “...there were just some things that I think were unacceptable for students.”
Pictured: An example of the Hot Lunch served in the Cafeteria.
In lieu of these issues, it was time for a change. To summarize what Dr. Cummings told me about everything that went into selecting a new group to provide our school lunches–first came the request for proposal, or RFP. Since public schools are funded by the government, any time they need to pay an outside company for something, be it a lunch program, or maintenance, they have an RFP. After the RFP was put out and various companies placed their job bids, they narrowed down their options to 4 different groups. Those groups gave their business proposals and some samples of their foods to a committee made of principals and students. In the end, the provider they went with was Chartwells, who have also been implemented in other school districts across the country.
After Chartwells took over, there were some immediate improvements. First off, as Dr. Cummings explained, one of the major selling points of Chartwells was that they not only provided breakfasts and lunches, but also food for afterschool, which was something they were looking for. Chris also reflected on their own thoughts and feelings about the new program: “I was like, ‘[Heck] yeah! We're going to get actual food that we can eat!’”
I myself, although bringing my lunch to school pretty much everyday since elementary school, remember being excited and happy about the new lunches. Everything was better.
If you don’t want to hear me talk about french fries for longer than you thought possible, you can skip this paragraph and the next. But the french fries were the biggest and most immediately noticeable improvement. Before the Chartwells program was implemented, when we got fries during lunch, they were in those little perforated thin plastic steam pouches. They were always soggy and way too moist. I don’t know how it happens, but somehow those fries could get both hot, and semi-frozen at the same time. Hard, cold, mushy potatoes don't really sound that nice. The only time I remember them being edible without drowning them in a bloodbath of ketchup was when our lunch ladies took them out of the packets and baked them on a proper baking tray.
But with the new lunches provided by Chartwells, I get fries a few times a week and eat them with my lunch from home. First off, the switch from bland cold crinkle cut fries to seasoned curly fries was a huge improvement (although there still isn’t enough salt for my taste, but I digress). Also, while a particularly mushy batch of fries still happens, it’s not every single day, and you can usually tell by just grabbing and slightly shaking the container. Speaking of which, the containers being little paper cup kind of things are much better than the slimy, condensated bag that we used to get.
Pictured: A candid example of the Nachos served daily in our cafeteria at Riley
The fries were obviously improved. But better fries wasn’t the only thing that got students excited about lunch. There was also the addition of the most popular lunch option: The Nacho Bar. The Nacho Bar was so popular at conception that back when it was first introduced, you were waiting in line for the nachos for about half your lunch (if not more) because so many students were getting the nachos. Luckily, things move smoother, but the nachos are still a student favorite. All around, the new lunch program was simply superior. As a result, as Dr. Cummings told me, “about 10% more of our students eat now than the 8 before we had Chartwells.” That’s a clear improvement.
Not only that, but as the COVID-19 pandemic broke out shortly after the introduction of the Chartwells program, we got to see how they would handle food distribution. Evidently, they handled it well. Dr. Cummings explained, “I will say that during Covid, we fed (with Chartwells) nearly 4 million meals, so that was students and families who would not have had breakfast and lunch had we not moved to a large provider like Chartwells who is able to do that at scale.” I concur that this wouldn’t have been possible.
So with all these positive things that Chartwells has implemented, only one question remains: Why is there still an issue when it comes to students eating school lunches? Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer to that. Since every student’s circumstances are different, there’s no one reason that students don’t eat, as much as people try to blame it on the cafeteria.
“The cafeteria is easy to blame,” Mrs. Wassner explained. “‘They don't give us good food.’ [But] it's not all not good…I wish they could make hot food. I understand why they don't, but I think that they get blamed when it's not always their fault.”
However, I am able to give some solutions. The first solution comes from Chris, who said, “Changing like, if the sandwiches have cheese on them… well maybe see if [they can] just add cheese so that people with lactose intolerance, they can have it still.” He added, “Maybe portions could be a little bit better.” Although companies like Chartwells, or any group that provides food for schools, have their hands tied in regards to portion sizing, it is something to think about. But making the sandwiches and other food options more lactose-intolerant friendly would definitely be a wise idea.
The second, and arguably biggest solution can be summed up in one word: communication.
“I know they have the surveys at lunch, you know, [but] people are trying to get their lunch, trying to sit down to eat with their friends, [so] I think it’s hard to stop and take a quick survey,” Dr. Cummings expressed. “I would like to get at how students give feedback better. I would like to be able to, you know, widen the variety of food options, but all that is on how we communicate with students.” As important as communication between the lunch provider and the students is, it can be hard to do that.
Mrs. Wassner agrees with that. “[Chartwells has] tried to come in and ask students ‘What do you want?’...and ask you ‘Which do you like better?’ I think they have tried…I'm sure they've asked kids like ‘What do you [prefer]?’”
As Dr. Cummings observed when he visits various cafeterias across the district, “It’s interesting just the variation in [people saying] ‘I like it’, ‘I wish I had more options’, ‘I wish there was more salt and pepper’...and then connecting students with ‘Did you know there's a way to do a survey?’ ‘Did you know there’s a way to give your feedback?’ ‘Did you know they have special lunches the first of every month and you get to decide what you want?’” Between our Superintendent himself, as well as representatives from Chartwells, the communication issue isn’t for lack of trying.
The bottom line is that school lunches aren’t great, but our program does a good job at providing edible food to a large number of students, as well as trying to get the ever important feedback from the student body on what they would like to see served.
My advice to anyone who doesn’t like the free school lunch is this: first off, don’t get the school lunch, join the many who bring a lunch from home. If you don’t want to do that, or if that’s not an option for you, then next time you see that lunch survey in your inbox, fill it out. Share your thoughts, your comments, your concerns, even your criticisms. Things can’t improve unless they get feedback, so give it. Then, maybe next time you grab your lunch from the cafeteria, you’ll find yourself pleasantly surprised to find something delicious, and nutritious on your plate.
