School lunches being one of the more polarizing topics in recent years has had some ups and downs. School lunches have had a multitude of overhauls and renovations, some were somewhat successful while others were a disaster. However this time the options on the menu have been slashed.
Some of the most popular options, such as the bean burrito, chicken dumplings, cookies and chicken thighs are gone. The hearts of children’s school feasters have been struck.
“I wasn’t happy at all with the bean burrito being removed. Out of the entire menu it was probably my favorite,” said Ethan Rahim.
One of the more ubiquitous items on the menu, the fries was something that you would expect to see almost everyday. With the budget cuts now we got fry cuts. From a common sight to a rare sight in a matter of months. Evidently this came with a bit of ruckus and tearful stomachs.
“I am pretty disappointed with the french fries being heavily limited, it made a pretty nice pairing with the pizza. Now I will just have to get used to the pizza itself,” said Nathan Huang.
If you had to describe how the shelves with trays looked prior to the school lunches being cut, you could compare it to your typical afternoon supermarket. It wasn’t super packed but had a lot of options. After the lunch cuts you could compare the shelves to 2020 supermarkets during peak covid. They look rather barren. A shell of their former shelves.
“I remember the shelves had almost always had trays filled with a variety of options, now the trays look mostly empty with just a single piece of food to eat,” said Huang.
Caption: A table prior to lunch cuts with a multitude of trays that are packed with plenty of food to eat.
Somehow, the food quality didn’t go down. Instead the food quality seems to have gone up which is a major surprise because it’s rather counterintuitive. Items such as the french fries, pizza and grilled cheese actually taste better now than their predecessors. School lunch feasters have been quick to notice this surprising, but welcoming change.
“I didn’t expect much when I grabbed the tray of pizza, I expected the same thing as usual. When I took a bite the flavor was actually better, especially the cheese on the pizza,” said Rahim.
School feasters have definitely been affected negatively due to a limited amount of food but not all is bad. Quality of food seems to have gone up but only time will tell if the quality will actually last. Something we can also keep in the back of our minds is whether or not we will see another lunch cut in the future. For now this is what we got.