How would you feel if you forgot to pack a lunch or didn’t have enough food at home to bring to school? Would you feel comfortable buying the lunch food at school? According to students and teachers surveyed at Edison Intermediate School (EIS), they are not satisfied with the cafeteria food. 

Many people are not able to bring lunch to school every day and are opposed to eating the school lunch food. For example, EIS eighth grade student Jessica Tan stated, “Every single time I walk in the cafeteria, it smells so bad. They make nachos and it is below the food grade. Salt and vinegar are the best snacks. Other than that, I don’t like any cafeteria foods.”

Many more people that were interviewed agreed with the statement that school lunch is not good quality. Dharry Victor, EIS seventh grade student explained,  “I think the pizza stinks, the fries are too spicy and the chocolate milk is moldy. I don’t eat school food that much because it doesn’t taste good at all.”

Lunch is a crucial meal in the day in order for kids to focus in school and for their health mentally and physically. If the food is not adequate, they won’t be able to learn and focus on their classes. For example, “Government figures show that over the past decade there have been 300 outbreaks of food illness in schools, affecting 16,000 students — and that such incidents are rising by 10 percent a year” (ABC News). 

Oftentimes, school lunches are not doing their job to fit the criteria needed for students. This needs to be changed and the school needs to prioritize the student’s health. According to UC Davis Health, there are 55 million teens and children attending public schools in the US. Kids eat between 35% and 40% of their daily calories at school. This means that it’s important that these calories are healthy ones. Sixth grader Louis Matielli explains his thoughts on the school food options: “It’s pretty bad, the pizza is nasty, and the sandwiches are bad. The waffle fries are okay. The chocolate milk is nasty, and the drink selection is so bad. The only good snacks are cookies and chips.”

There are plenty of bad experiences with this unreliable food. As stated by EIS eighth grader Sadie Payne, “The cafeteria food is very terrible. It was my first time purchasing milk, and when I saw it I noticed it was sour so I threw it out. I noticed there were chunks. Humongous chunks. The gummies were my second experience. I was going to get the gummies, and I opened it and saw fuzzy green stuff on it and it happened to be mold.”

All in all, it is clear that many people are not satisfied with the school lunch food. In order to improve student’s productivity and ability to learn, we need to improve the food that the students are eating every day.