Finally the bell rings, accounting for the end of 4th period and it’s time to go to lunch: 45 minutes to hangout with your friends, go to clubs and of course eat something so you can gain some energy. But after looking at the lunch options you realize there isn’t anything appealing to you either because of religious reasons or health concerns. School lunches aren’t respected by most kids at this school, not only because of health reasons, but also because of the unappetizing factors such as the school’s chicken nuggets.. Students all around the country get their most nutrients from the school’s cafeteria. A school cafeteria’s main purpose is to provide students with their breakfast and lunch. According to “USDA Economic Research Service”, during the Corona virus outbreak, the NSLP has provided over 2.2 billion meals. The article further states “91.5 percent of the meals were reduced or free.”
However, whether you think school food is good or bad, a group that has a true reason to complain about school food are vegans. As someone who has to eat only vegan options for religious reasons, the school food options for me and a handful of my friends who are also following the same religious beliefs are not offered foods that we are allowed to eat most of the time. During fasting we are restricted from eating certain foods like dairy, and during some important events, fasting can last 2 months. If eating school food isn’t something we can rely on, this creates challenges for us. As a result, we are obligated to bring food from home, but this should not be the case as schools are supposed to provide students – all students – stronger forms of nutrition. There just isn’t any benefit to students to rely on school food options when we know they will offer us very few options, if any at all.
Other than religious reasons, some students aren’t able to eat the school food because of health reasons. Lunch is a major part of a students’ school day; the time given to students to eat and get some source of energy, but if the school is not offering those students viable options, it just doesn’t work. Again, this presents a challenge, especially for students who aren’t able to bring their own food from home. They are left to finish the rest of their day with the small amount of energy they hopefully gained from their breakfast, something they may also be relying on the school to provide. The school food is also not available for students who fight for animal rights, and have ethical reasons to not eat any kind of animal meat.
All of the students who campaigned for SMOB throughout my school career have promised better school lunches for all the schools, but there have not been any real changes for school food options as far as I have seen. Here at Paint Branch, the only vegan breakfast options that I have been able to eat were breakfast bars that they no longer serve or only bring out once in a while, raisins, and from time to time dried fruits. This same lack of variety carries over to lunch as my options vary from plain tortilla chips to bean tacos that weren’t very appetizing to sliced apples, oranges, pears and celery.
The school food should have more vegan options like veggie burgers, salads without any meat contact and water. Having more options for students that have restrictions on specific foods would be very beneficial for the students’ energy and health. Not only does the school food have a small variety of the same food served on schedule every week, most of the time the food isn’t appetizing for anyone to enjoy. Of Course this isn’t the staff’s fault but more of a county problem that is seen around most of Montgomery County schools.
School food at least at Paint Branch will always be a topic that will have a variety of personal opinions. But for me, until there are more diverse school food options, vegan students will be disappointed and left on their own.