Thursday, December 10, 2015

Unsatisfactory Lunch Equals Unsatisfied Students

Imagine being a high school student coming out of a ninety minute class with your stomach growling from three hours without food. You get your meal after standing in a long line for ten minutes and what you get is not very appetizing. You finally sit down to relax and eat your food but you don’t even want it so you remain hungry with your stomach growling for the remainder of the school day. This is a struggle that students at McKinley Tech face every day.

On the days that students don’t eat school lunch and have nothing to eat at all, they find themselves sitting in class hungry. There is food  provided for students, but because the food lacks in certain areas they don’t want to eat . Most students find that the food served in the cafeteria lacks taste and the portions that are given is just simply not enough. Schools in the District of Columbia have attempted to make lunch more nutritious to provide students with healthier eating choices. However, the nutritious food that is given to students lacks flavor and students often refrain from eating it. Therefore, the attempt to get students to eat healthier is not a success because in order to eat healthier, they have to actually eat the food.

“I enjoy going to lunch to get away from the stress of my classes. My reason for going to the cafeteria has nothing to do with the food because I’m not very fond of it” said Najah Watkins, a senior at McKinley. Najah has been attending McKinley for four years and she rarely eats school lunch. Instead, she packs her own lunch or doesn’t eat lunch at all because the choices provided in the cafeteria are not appealing.

Like Najah, various students at McKinley are not fond of the school lunch and it is due to the lack of taste and selections students often complain about. “The selections students have for lunch is horrible because there is not enough variety and the portions are not enough. Students often times eat the school lunch and still leave hungry” stated the Dean of Students, Maurice Butler.

Students stand in a line for ten minutes to get a plate of food that-in their opinion-doesn’t taste good and doesn’t fill them up. As a result, these students end up snacking on junk food throughout the day to satisfy their hunger which in turn defeats the attempt by the school system to get students to eat healthier. Watkins stated “School lunch can be nutritious and tasty all at the same time. This way, I won’t have to seek out unhealthy alternatives to satisfy my hunger”.

As a result of DCPS schools such as McKinley serving food that lacks quality and taste, students often eat unhealthy snacks and meals. Students are so hungry from not eating lunch at school that they will get something quick to eat from a fast food restaurant. In order to get more students to eat school lunch and prevent them from eating unhealthy, DCPS cafeterias must make the food more appetizing for students. Meeting the requirements of tastier foods, larger varieties of food, and larger portions will help make school lunch more appealing to students and in effect they will eat more of it.