What’s really in school food and is it healthy? Is the convenience worth it? This is a question students should think about when choosing to eat school lunch. School lunches have changed since the pandemic with the government providing free lunches for all. Parents, students, and staff benefited from this and voted for the FF Bill in 2022. The FF Bill provides free and healthy school lunches through the Healthy School Meals for All Program.
There are standards that schools must follow for school meals.“As a teacher and administrator I have learned a lot about the standards that nutrition services and schools are held to by state law as far as providing nutritious food for all students and staff,” Nunley said.
Though Manitou Springs High School participates in the Healthy School Meals for All Program and advertises the school breakfast/lunches as healthy, there is subsequent evidence of the opposite.
After analyzing the online nutrition facts, it is found that the nutrition facts for school lunches are incomplete and or inaccurate. For example, some of the breakfast options are Teddy Graham Crackers, which are sugary and have no real nutritional value. Example options for lunch are bosco’s sticks, veggie boxes, garden salads, and a turkey with cheese hoagie. All are packed with high amounts of sodium, which is a food preservative that inhibits bacteria within the packaging before serving.
Some students feel that there should be more variety, especially when religion is involved. “More fruit options, maybe yogurts, juice, or smoothies. What I dislike about it is the lack of halal options for food,” Kazakhstani exchange Student Zaure Yerzhan (12) said.
Besides MSHS, different school districts have a much different variety of breakfast and lunch options. D11 participates in the same Healthy School Meals for All Program that MSHS does, and has a very similar menu to MSHS. However, D20, who also participates in the program offers a much larger variety of lunch items that students can choose from and make healthier choices.
On D20’s Taste4Adventure Menu, students have fresher and healthier options to choose from such as a build your potato bar, built you taco bar, and a build your own rice bowl bar. However their breakfast menu is similar to D11 and D14’s menu.
With the federal and state restrictions the food service staff works hard to ensure that students at least meet the minimum nutritional requirements. “I think within those standards, our food service staff does an excellent job within a lot of parameters that they’re required to uphold,” Nunley said.
Compared to different districts, it is clear that MSHS is not the best example of healthy school lunches; but they do the best they can as a small school district with limited food budget. Perhaps the Healthy School Meals for All Program is to blame?
