Lunch. The middle meal of the day but for students, that middle meal is eaten at school. There’s the choice to either bring your own lunch to school or eat what is provided in the school lunch. However school lunches aren’t always portrayed as something positive because of the way school lunches are thought of. In a survey sent out to South students, 52.6% of them said that they like what is served at lunch and 47.4% had said they don’t like it. Why does school lunch food have a bad rep with South students? From the same survey it was shown that 67.8% of students eat the school lunch most days, but if that many students that eat it don’t like it, what could they do to change that? If it was just a change in food for a day, what changes would students want to make?

The question comes up then of what would you choose for the school lunch for a day? Maybe food from restaurants like McDonalds or Pizza Hut would be the ideal meal for some students but for many others, they would want a different variety than what is served at lunch now.

When the South student body was asked what they would choose for South’s lunch menu if they could pick anything Junior Hunter-Rae Wendlandt said,

“I’d make sure there was fresh fruit instead of frozen or prepackaged ones.”

Wendlandt wasn’t alone in this choice. Many other students had also mentioned that they would serve fresh fruits at lunch. Some answers though were a little more creative. For example, Junior Sheyla Monroy had said,

“I would have cheeseburgers, cheese fries, hot wings, noodles with egg rolls, and fruit salad.”

Many students like Monroy had said many unhealthy buffet food ideas for what they would serve for a lunch one day like Senior Kevin Stock who said,

“I’d have burgers, chicken nuggets, some pizza, hot dogs, breakfast burgers, and scrambled eggs.”

However many students talked about liking the healthy options that are served at lunch. Healthier lunch options were added to the menu a few years ago, and many students like it. Students like Freshman Conner Kapellen had said,

“I would want a mix of stuff, healthy but tasty. Stuff that everyone wants.”

Here this shows that ideal lunches that are student planned aren’t always just unhealthy junk food. That some kids really do like the healthy options served at lunch. Though Sophomore Madison Linger had said,

“I would serve tacos, everyone loves tacos!”

Now saying that everyone likes tacos isn’t necessarily true but many other students like Linger had said that they would want to serve tacos for the school lunch one day. Other students thought would serve foods from different cultures and countries. For example, Sophomore Lucas Faulkner who said,

“I would serve Ethnic European, but it would be nice to explore foods from other countries too.”

Many South students like Faulkner would serve foods from different cultures because of wanting to be able to learn about these other countries’ foods, or because those foods are fan favorites to other students.

Overall if it is a balanced, healthy meal, to a large selection of unhealthy foods. Most students could probably think of something quite creative for what they would serve for a school lunch for a day if they were in charge of the menu.