This year, FCPS has done little about the poor nutritional value of their school lunches. Many new lunches have been recently added and yet the quality is the same: carbs on carbs. Some students do not have the time for a home-bought lunch, so they resort to purchasing one from school. Since most of the healthier options like fruits and salads can look unappealing, grabbing the carb-stuffed lunches are much easier.
“They do have healthy options, but a lot of the easiest things to grab, like the pizza or the sandwiches don’t really have all the nutrition and have a lot of saturated fats that I guess can make it a little less than healthy,” senior Rami Aboud said.
Some teachers are forced to eat school lunches usually due to outside sources being too time-consuming, such as making their lunch, or too expensive, like ordering for delivery. With the food quality being average at best, home-cooked meals seem to be better because of their freshness, taste, and variety.
“I would love to see more vegetables in the line like green beans, and carrots, and overall more color,” an anonymous teacher said.
Many students wish there were more options in the lunch line that are both tasty and nutritional, not like the chips and cookies. Also, adding the unappetizing factors for the not expensive but definitely not cheap lunches really brings down the already subpar food.
“Sometimes the food looks a little weird so I don’t wanna take it,” freshman Banu Kasamanli said.
It can be hard for students to eat healthy even if parents encourage them to because either one or both parents work, causing meal-prepping to be very hard and time-taxing. Aboud says efficiency can be a big factor too, where bringing lunch means dealing with more weight in a student’s backpack the whole day, while buying lunch just means throwing out the tray when finished.
“There should be programs or opportunities for people who require a free lunch. Ideally lunch should be free for people for the convenience of the students,” Aboud said.
According to Langley, lunches do follow the necessary dietary guidelines. Also, teachers say that the no-ordering-food rule is fine unless students’ parents are fine with it, but either way lunch is a good place to socialize with friends.
“The lunches are very quick to get just so I don’t teach on an empty stomach,” the anonymous teacher said.