Freshman Josh Wolicki strolls down the halls after his previous period is dismissed. His destination is certain. There is only one thing on his mind. He arrives where he is supposed to be, straining his eyes to see what is written across the room.
On a small white board, the words “popcorn chicken” are written in Expo marker. Wolicki can rest easy knowing that his favorite meal is being served for lunch today, but this is not always the case.
“The food is good,” said Wolicki. “Sometimes it isn’t what you want, but it’s still satisfying.”
Opinions like these are to be expected about a school lunch schedule; some days a student buys the meal of the day, other days they settle for another option offered by the school’s cafeteria.
“My favorite food is corn dogs, because it’s a small meal, and it’s not really food,” said Wolicki.
A single entree has been served some days for lunch, such as corn dog day. Small meals like these leave more to be desired at lunch. This has been a problem here at Huntley High School for a while now, among other things.
On some days, lunches just are not all that they are cracked up to be. Many changes have been made to the lunch menu to create a healthier arrangement of foods that students can pick from, but, as everybody knows, healthy does not always mean tasty.
“The pizza has gotten smaller,” said senior Louis Morales when asked what his major complaint about the school lunches was. “The sweet potato fries and sweet tater tots aren’t very good.”
The appearance of the food that is prepared in the cafeteria has not exactly gotten better over the years either. Many meals in the cafeteria tend to look unappealing to students upon first inspection.
“It’s gotten crappier,” said junior Kaelin Lopriore. “It doesn’t even look like food anymore.”
School is largely based on first impressions, whether it be the first impression of a teacher or a student or a fellow classmate. School lunches are no exception.
Too often a student will look at an item sitting on the serving rack in the lunch lines, such as green beans, and not even think to take them. Appearances are not everything, but they definitely do play a big role when it comes to serving food.
Huntley High School does not have to have world class chefs to serve our food, but in order to have students buy some of the healthier items, and not just the meal being served that day, the food needs to look a little more appetizing.
Despite the many issues that have popped up over the last few years, changes are being made for the better. Food Services Coordinator Julie Kearns was able to shed some light on the situation in the cafeteria.
“Food changes happen due to government rules on school lunches,” explains Kearns. “That went into effect last year. We try to do the things that sell, like chicken or pizza items.”
Kearns was happy to announce that starting Oct. 1, two entree items will be served instead of just one. This will solve the problem of a little-to-no variation in main meal items.
“There will also be three chicken items [a week],” said Kearns. “We can only pick from what our supplier has, so we can’t just buy anything. We wouldn’t mind offering a grilled chicken sandwich, but they’re so pricey.”
“Lunches just went to $2.60 this year. That’s the cost of everything that we provide for the students for lunch,” said Kearns.
The cafeteria makes very little profit off of the meals served. The prices of meals are to cover the purchase of food and drinks, and to cover the cafeteria workers’ wages.
The meals here at Huntley High may not be exactly what we would like them to be, but we have it pretty good considering the options we have to pick from and the healthy meals that are provided.