Student Quotes

School food has been declining a lot recently.any students are tired of the bland quality of our school lunches. Ninth grader Cody Flores said, “No, school food is not on the brink of prison food, it’s alright and normal.” A lot of students agree that the food is not the best, and that it is just normal and basic. Kurshat Bilgin claimed that, “School food is okay, it could be better of course, it’s not as good as it used to be.” School lunch is definitely worse than most meals today, and we are still paying for it. Some students seem to be against paying for something that they think is subpar, “It should stay at the current quality with no cost, and honestly, people don’t really want to pay for it, and it’s not worth it.”  But do note that not ALL schools have horrible food

Admin Opinions

Mr. Oberndorf said, “I love the school lunch! I like the variety, I like how it’s affordable, I like how they have chocolate milk, and I love our school lunch staff that gets everything ready each day.” The lunch ladies are truly nice, they are not rude and they have good manners. Chocolate milk is probably one of the only things many students actually like, according to many students. Although the food is affordable, in many students’ opinions, it’s not worth the bland quality. 

Serving Amounts

Although the food is made quickly and swiftly by the lunch ladies, there isn’t much to eat sometimes. Another school in Fairfax County is Rachel Carson Middle School. One time there was only fries, chocolate milk, and a banana to eat. That is not fulfilling, and I had to get a second lunch to actually get some energy. In Oakton however, I got a bag of sliced apples, which only contained 3 slices, just 3! The main course portions are not that much either, I get you need to feed 1000’s of students, but Fairfax puts very little money into school food which results in these cheap and small portions. The vegetable portions are small cups unsurprisingly, the celery portions are only half a stalk fit inside it. Also, don’t forget that the food served is repetitive, you will almost always have the same meal every day if you get school lunch.

Cost of School Lunch

The average school lunch costs about $2.85 in Virginia for Middle and High schools. For people who cannot afford the lunch can sign up for free school lunch, which is a kind hearted thing from Fairfax. Although you can pack your own lunch, what if students who are not poor don’t want to pack their lunch? This is common as a lot of students do not want to pack their lunch or forget to. Since they forgot to pack their lunch, now they have to eat small portions of bland food, getting very little energy and barely any nutrition. That’s not healthy for students. Or what if a student’s mother or dad forgot to get more groceries that you can pack in a lunch box? Same thing will happen, you probably will still be hungry and you won’t get your needed nutrition. 

Summary

School lunch is affordable and cheap, but with poor serving amounts and bland quality. High schools make a lot of money, but they don’t put much in it into school food, they use it a lot on events and sports. While school food is not as nutritious as they claim it to be, it’ll keep you going at the end of the day.