Questionable Campus Cuisine
The issue of food provision for K-12 students has long been a contentious topic. The debate of who should be responsible for student health and nutrition has resurfaced once again with the proposed updates to School Nutrition Standards by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to raise the quality of school lunches. The question now is whether school lunch programs can meet the quality and nutrition standards set by the USDA while continuing to provide free meals. Up to now, the answer is a clear no. Instead of offering free, USDA-regulated lunches, students should pay for higher quality, more nutritious meals.
Undoubtedly, school lunch plays an important part in the growth and development of students, but public school lunch’s reputation in the U.S. has never been pristine. Images of cold gluten-free pizza and stale fries have dominated the common perception of public school lunches. Beyond the question of quality food options is a much scarier prospect: school lunches that are not even safe for students to consume. The prevalence of E. Coli in school lunches has already been scrutinized by news and media outlets in the past, but there are more nasty shocks in store for parents and public school students. In fact, the standards governing the preparation and food content of school lunches fall short of minimums imposed upon even fast-food restaurants, such as KFC and McDonalds (Public School Review). Raised nutritional standards will mean nothing if there are no inspections and enforcement to make sure that food is both healthy, and most importantly, safe. With the shoestring budgets most programs are on, it is likely that this is simply impossible to do.
“Schools as a whole are an important institution not only for raising the youth of our country into healthy and capable adults,” senior Collin Chen said. “Therefore, proper nutrition is essential. I believe our school lunches have room to improve. Currently, the meals offered are not only processed, but also tend to be imbalanced nutritionally. I have seen people on social media claim that even some prison foods are healthier and taste better than the food offered at schools.”
Another issue with free school lunch programs is the risk of waste and inefficiency. Too often, large amounts of food are wasted or thrown away, leading to not just increased costs for already strained school nutrition budgets, but environmental impact as well. A study conducted by Pennsylvania State University found that 27% to 53% of the food served in U.S. school lunches are thrown away, especially fruits and vegetables. This phenomena can be seen at Peninsula as well — from students throwing cranberries during class, to whole, uneaten pieces of fruit being thrown in the trash, to unopened cartons of milk sitting on benches and tables.
“[Peninsula] is experiencing the unfortunate, unintended consequence of food waste on our campus,” AP Physics 1 and 2 teacher Mark Greenberg said. “There exists a small percentage of students who are not using these [free] meals for their intended purpose. There are full milk cartons and other food items that have been thrown on a small ledge outside of my classroom as part of a Panther Time game. It is shameful that a small handful of students are taking for granted what so many others lack.”
Free school lunches are not just causing nutritional problems either — they have become a moral liability, especially at a school as privileged as Peninsula. In addition to encouraging a culture of privilege and entitlement, the current system at Peninsula is vulnerable to fraud and abuse, with some students taking advantage of the system to obtain free meals that they are not entitled to, such as claiming other students’ lunches using their student ID numbers. Lunchtime in the cafeteria or outside the food carts often devolves into a mildly chaotic scene of pushing and shoving, with students clamoring to get a free slice of nutritionally dubious pizza.
“Since lunch became free, I have noticed how the lines have gotten a lot longer and that there are a lot more people cutting into line just for something as mundane as fried chicken,” senior Jeremy Su said. “I have seen entire packages of uneaten food left on benches. Some people are not appreciative of free school lunch at all. Free food has brought out the worst in some people, which I think is just sad.”
