Monday: Beef Enchilada & Peaches

Starting with the main entrée–the enchilada. The enchilada included beef and cheese wrapped up in a tortilla with more cheese drizzled on top of it, which sounds promising from the start. Who doesn’t like cheese (besides vegans obviously)? The enchilada was surprisingly tolerable but it was not fulfilling at all. All of the contents inside of it gradually fell out, so I was left scooping up the beef with the tortilla. This one was a messy lunch in my opinion. The peaches tasted like peaches, so I can’t necessarily complain about that. Nonetheless, it was not a very bountiful lunch. 5/10.

Tuesday: Pizza, Smiley Fries & Apple juice

The pizza was admittedly good! It was a simple cheese and pepperoni pizza, but it tasted edible and that’s all that mattered to me at that moment. Also, SMILEY FRIES FOR THE WIN. I will always love smiley fries; they have a special place in my heart. On a more unfortunate note, the apple juice had ice in it so I didn’t drink it. Overall, not the worst lunch, but also not the best. 7/10.

Wednesday: Chicken Bites, Raspberry Muffin Sludge & Peaches

The chicken bites tasted like chicken, as one would expect. I dipped them in BBQ sauce in an attempt to make them not so dry. The raspberry muffins weren’t even in the shape of muffins but instead in a sheet cake tray, with this brown mushy layer on the top of it all. The not-brown part tasted fine, but I did not dare to try the brown sludge-y part. The peaches, once again, tasted like peaches. 6/10.

Thursday: Half an Uncrustable, two slices of Poppyseed Bread & Brownie

This was not a fulfilling lunch whatsoever. The option that I had gone into the line for was originally sausage pizza, which is typically fine, but today it was supreme pizza in bags. BAGS. I decided it would not be a great idea to eat pizza out of a bag, so I opted out from that. I got an Uncrustable instead (which I am now seeing is also an entrée in a bag), which is usually a good lunch option to lean on, but that day it was working against me every chance it got. All the peanut butter and jelly fell out of the Uncrustable. The poppyseed bread was tasty, and I got a brownie from my friend, so basically all I ate for lunch yesterday was sugar–no nutrition. I left the lunchroom hungry. 5/10.

Friday: Pasta with Queso sauce, Breadstick & Strawberries (I decided to pack sides after realizing the lunches were not enough for me)

The pasta was, honestly, not the worst. I like pasta of all kinds, though, so it is kind of a biased report. The entrée was simply what it said on the menu–penne pasta with a cheese sauce poured on top. The breadstick (for once) was warm when I got it, but was kind of bland and had no seasoning on it besides butter (I suppose I will take what I can get). It was pretty good, though. The strawberries were still frozen and could not even be broken into pieces. I packed a sprite, yogurt, cookies, crackers, and a cheese stick to accompany this lunch, thinking it would not really be fulfilling enough, but I ended up only eating the yogurt and drank the sprite. Not a bad lunch, I have to admit. 8/10.

The descriptions of all these lunches bear the question: how did school lunches get so…sparse? I find myself eating the same four foods every week-none of which being particularly healthy-and almost always feeling like I need an “extra” to go along with it. Shouldn’t the lunches provided be enough for students alone?

So what are we doing about it to change? Absolutely nothing. If we, the students, get tired of the lunches, we just pack. That is not an option for some students. It’s understandable that there are variables that get in the way of proper preparation of lunches or the quantity that the school receives, but there has got to be a better way to feed the student body.

Junior Braden Cannon expressed his opinions on the lunches and what he thinks needs to change in order for lunches to be more sufficient.

“It [school lunches] depends on the day,” Cannon said. “Sometimes there’s some things I like and other times it’s more iffy.”

Cannon went on to talk about how he wishes the food could be cooked better and hopes to see a change in the menu soon.

Lunch has not always been this bad, either. Upon asking many students during my time at lunch, many have said that they can remember times where lunch was fulfilling, but not any time recently.

(Disclaimer: this article was not written in any derogatory manner towards the lunch staff at Carroll High School. This was simply written to get a few students’ opinions on the lunches to shed light on how the student body feels.)