PHHS School lunch

By Andrew Wong

School lunch has always been underrated by PHHS students. Students complain about the quality of the food every time and always say that it should improve. However, for the school, this is not as easy as it sounds, as guidelines always have to be met.

The most common complaint given about school lunch is its price. Many claim that the $3.25 lunch price is too high, considering that school lunches do not serve enough to fill a student’s appetite.

“Currently at the price the food is being sold, I do not think that it is worth buying. Because of the lack of quality the lunch offers, we should not have to pay to eat some frozen food that they just heated up,” claims senior Joseph Chung.

In fact, the money that students pay for lunch becomes a part of the school’s budget for lunch, and with a low budget also comes low quality.

“A lot has to do with the cost of the food, we only have a limited budget so we don’t spend a lot of money of the food. If the budget was a little higher, then the quality can go up,” explains cafeteria cook Bryan Enos.

Even if many seem to claim school lunch is not the greatest, the lunches are usually handmade by the workers themselves. As ingredients are mostly frozen foods, workers work hard to hand make the food.

“We do a percentage by hand and another percentage already being pre-prepared. I would say it’s half and half, but we would like that to be more handmade,” says Mr. Enos.

If school lunch is always set to be underrated based off its quality and price, the question lies in how the food can be improved from both its price and quality.

“We hired a new field supervisor who’s focused on culinary, foods and colors. And I’m excited for what direction he’s going to push us in. Get us new scratch made food,” explains cafeteria staff Raquel Vargas.