Is school lunch worth it? ​By: Morgan Bybel

On June 4, 1946, President Harry S. Truman signed the National School Lunch Act. For many years, this act has helped many less fortunate kids be able to eat. In 2021 schools decided during the pandemic to make school lunches free which helped many less fortunate children even more but since the new school year started in 2022, this has stopped, and school lunches are now about $4. Because the prices of school lunches have gone up, many students in Hillgrove high school feel as though the amount of money they pay for lunch is too much and is not worth it. With the price going up, Cameron Gezovich, a student at Hillgrove high school stated, “some people can't eat lunch because it costs so much money money, and it doesn't taste that good for the price.” Many students with families that are in the lower economic class have been affected by this change and do not eat lunch because on average it costs on average $65 a month just to eat a full meal that used to be free. This causes them to go home on an empty stomach and not get the correct nutrition to grow. With this another huge problem with lunch is the amount of time these kids can eat. Lunch is about 24 minutes and by getting the opinions of a few different students like Jacob Frazer and Ngao Holt at Hillgrove they spend about half the time waiting in line for food, which leaves them an estimate of 12 minutes to eat a full lunch. According to Kaitlyn Macelwee, “at least another 10-15 minutes would give us more time to eat.” If lunch were changed to 40 minutes that would give students an appropriate time to eat without rushing. This is particularly important because students go 7 hours a day, 5 days a week with non-stop learning and sometimes everyone needs a good break. This not only could help students have more time to finish their food but also gives them time to relax before they learn again. During an interview with another student, their opinion on the quality of the food was not the most positive. Isabella Burt, a student at Hillgrove High School shared, “The quality of the food is about a 3 and a half because sometimes the consistency can be weird, and it isn't very fresh.” Even though people are getting food that is supposed to be very nutritious food, most of the things they are eating are very greasy pizza or fries and chicken. Students are also not getting all the sides that are healthier than everything else they choose. since prices of school food have gone up it would be safe to say most people thought the quality of the school lunch would have gone up also but that is not the case, the food just is not the best and if schools put in the effort of asking their students' opinion on this matter the lunches would improve in a various aspects, like the amount of time lunch is, and the quality and price of the food. If this ends up being changed students and staff could all benefit from it