Imagine walking into the lunch room and seeing a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Instead, there are racks and racks of cookies, rice krispies, chips, ice cream, and many sugary drinks.
New Berlin West Middle/High school should get healthier options for lunch, and breakfasts. NBW should get more vegetarian options for those who don’t like meat. NBW should get soups, vegan burgers (sandwiches), more salads, and more pasta and/or vegetable options.
Grace Wollmer, a freshman at NBW, mentioned, “Vegetarian patties for burgers, soup and more pasta options without meat…” Wollmer also shared that she feels the reason why they don’t have more is “because the people who make the menu are inconsiderate.”
Many people feel that the people who make the menus need to switch it up especially for those who are vegetarian. Students just need more. The students who feel that the lunch menus could be better and should have healthier options.
Cindy Jensen, the director of Food and Nutrition Services for the New Berlin School District, said, “I just reviewed the January Daily Special menu. A meatless entree was featured 50% of the time.”
After I received that information, I looked at the menu on the School District of New Berlin page, and it showed that 11 days on the menu contain meat which is not good for a lot of students.
The lunches in the New Berlin School District are very unhealthy for students with how the lunches always repeat. For example, our school serves nachos at least three to four times a month. When we have pizza, it’s very greasy and all that extra grease is not helping the nutritious factors that some students have the choice to pick up. When students at NBW get the salads to try to go for the more healthy option, they get salads with withered lettuce. Our school needs healthier entrees like small side salads, pasta, soups, and more of the healthier things that teenagers and tweens would enjoy for their school lunch.
Generally, our school should incorporate more home cooked meals that a lot of us students enjoy, but also incorporate meals that fit in federal regulations and funding so students can eat healthier and filling meals. Generally, our school should also incorporate meals that our parents had when they were going to middle and high school that looked like home cooked meals like mashed potatoes, pasta, meatloaf, chicken Parmesan, and other filling meals.
Another major problem is the price of food. The price of food is expensive if you are getting a full meal. Our school needs so many new and better changes to the lunch menu so our lunches are not as bad as McDonald’s and make us more healthy. The unhealthy things like the cookies, chips, ice creams (other than the frozen yogurt), and even some of the drinks are less than a dollar. The side salad is two dollars and 35 cents, and a whole lunch is two dollars and 60 cents.
Our school is giving us these cheaper things so; one, they sell more, and also so they can get more of the unhealthy options for lunches. Our school should spend more money on healthier options and it’s kind of odd that with our two cafes that they cannot put at least half of one of them into a meat-free and more healthier side.
Again, New Berlin West needs to have healthier options for us students. The lunches currently do not give students the healthy benefits of a school lunch that all students need.
