A Closer Look at Cavelero Mid High’s School Lunch

   Breakfast has always been the most important meal of the day, but everyone forgets about lunch. Lunch is the meal that gets us through the day, and Monday through Friday, lunch is the key to surviving the school day. It’s so vital that we have good tasting, healthy and fulfilling lunches that the school provides us. At Cavelero Mid High, their goals are no different. 

    Mollie Langum, our district’s Food and Nutrition Services Department Supervisor,  works extremely hard at her job. She works with local companies to provide our food, such as Charlies Produce, Franz Bread Company and Dairy Fresh. These companies supply fresh and quality produce right to our school kitchens. Langum also has to follow government guidelines such as three and three quarters of vegetables a week, there must be less than 10% of saturated fat and the lunch in whole must be between 600-850 calories. Our everyday pizza has about 20 grams of protein which is extremely valuable for keeping students full and willing to learn. Mollie Langum does her best to put in healthy options but according to her, “Sometimes the new healthier homestyle items aren’t selected and don’t win over pizza or burgers.” The pizza and burger are truly not unhealthy since they meet the guidelines, but they won’t be as nutritious as a salad. Langum also states how she and the kitchen staff “love implementing new ideas if they meet the state and federal guidance for school meals.” 

   As important as the nutritious facts are, the opinions of the students and health teachers are just as significant. A recurring topic among the student body is that we need bigger portions of the food. Ninth grader Alayna Ray thinks that students should be given bigger portions of more fulfilling food: “[people] wouldn’t ask for other people to buy them food…they come around and ask [are you] going to eat that?’” If given bigger portions of protein, the student body would significantly benefit. Maybe adding protein bars or other protein filled small items. Studies show that protein is extremely important and aids in helping us feel full and keeping us full for longer. 

On a positive note, our school lunches are actually pretty healthy. The government regulates our food and our delicious meals must fall within a certain calorie, sodium, protein, fat, and sugar range. Despite this, school lunches are given a really bad public view, which is pretty unfair. According to Cavelero health teacher Jill Clark, “Mollie Langum has a lot of guidelines and restrictions on where she can buy food…the nutrition count has to be at a certain level… and she really tries her best”. Our district’s Food & Nutrition Services Department Supervisor has to take into account that our meals must be nutritious, fulfilling, affordable and edible. With all of those aspects into consideration, and compared to other districts’ lunches, we are doing pretty well. 

    Although our lunches are already pretty healthy, fulfilling and yummy, there is always room for improvements. For example, Ninth grade student Alayna Ray would like to see more vegan options: “…they have one option which is the veggie burger…but the salads have caesar dressing which has anchovies…and there’s also the meat that comes with it.” All of the dressings for salad either contain egg, milk, anchovies or parmesan cheese, which are not vegan/vegetarian friendly. Even just putting out a vegan salad dressing would help so much for students with allergies or special diets. Also adding gluten free options, such as gluten free pizza would be inclusive and considerate of people with different dietary needs. 

    Overall, the nutritional value, opinions of the students and a health teacher and how to improve our school lunches are very valuable to Cavelero and the advisors. They are constantly looking for ways to improve, and that is what is most important.