This year, the PCS school lunch providers changed to LunchMasters, leading to a significant change in food quality. Among the students at PCS who eat school lunch–whether it’s everyday or hardly ever–the quality of the food brings out passionate opinions.
Given this has been a key discussion around campus this year, we decided to interview a few different students from various grades. 12th-grader Aedan Wall told us he gets the school lunch everyday, but he usually eats breakfast at home. Aedan observed that the quality of the food is way better. He said that in the past years he would tend to go to different places off campus, just because the food wasn’t appetizing. “Breakfast is warm now,” he remarked. “[The Food] got way better. It feels like actual food.” Aedan noted that the food has been running out most days, showing perhaps that students like the food more this year.
LunchMasters, founded by Ted and Marie Giouzelis, supplies more options for students, including alternatives for students with dietary restrictions. Junior Bodhi Partland said: “Last year, they would only have one option. Now the food is delicious and they have veggie options.” Bodhi added that “they have multiple options now and the food is a lot higher quality.” Some of the new items that students have shown high interest in are the veggie tacos and the chicken enchiladas, he said.
Many students last year did not have that experience with the school lunch and were inclined to throw food away. Marky Nathan, who eats school lunch about 4 out of the 5 days during the week, said, “ When you eat school lunch often, you want it to be good, and last year the quality of the food was bad. It tasted fake and you got such a small amount of food.” Fortunately, this year, Marky and many other students have found that the quantity and quality of the food has greatly improved. Marky explained, “I think the lunch is about 150% better than last year and I enjoy it a lot more.” When asked if Marky has any favorites from this year’s lunch he said “the pasta and salad” are “very good and keep him full.”
