There have been a number of arguments or complaints made against school lunches in school districts all around the country, and LC is no different. The Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township’s website states that “the food service staff is committed to providing a variety of nutritious and attractively prepared foods,” for the district’s students. However, would all students agree with this statement? In a recent poll conducted by the Cub Reporter, students were asked to rate Lawrence Central High School’s cafeteria food on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most edible, delicious option. Why do some students feel that the lunch served at school isn’t completely edible and tasty? What measures can the school and district take to make the food better?

A total of 88 responses were reported on the poll sent throughout canvas to LC’s student body. The poll recorded that 26.9% of the total number of students responding to the survey were freshmen. Moreover, 28.6% of the total number of students were sophomores. These percentages make up more than half of the overall number of people responding to the survey. Are the lowerclassmen more passionate about the lunch served at LC, than upperclassmen? Nonetheless, a number of students in each grade-level contributed to the overall survey, and made their opinions known to the food service department.

However, we must take into account that not all students who completed the survey eat the lunch provided by Lawrence Central. The survey reported that at least 37% of LC students eat the school’s lunch on some occasions, while 58% eat the school’s lunch each day. This also leaves just about 21% of the student body that either simply does not eat the school’s lunch or those who pack their lunch.

The Cub Reporter created a scale from one to five, in order to determine how edible, LC’s student body believed the school’s lunch was. More than half of the overall respondents in the poll rated the school’s lunch a 3, or qualified the question. This could mean that a number of students are hesitant to rate the school’s lunch or simply don’t know how they feel about the school’s lunch. This could also mean that someday the school’s lunch is extremely edible, while other day’s the school’s lunch is highly inedible. Nevertheless, a vast majority of students didn’t express extreme opinions about the ediability of LC’s lunch service. However, there are still some students who did not.

Along with students rating LC´s lunch, the poll also asked to an extent, what efforts could be made in order to improve the school´s lunch. A number of students voted that the school lunch should add larger proportions. This shows that there are some students who believe that the amount of food that LC provides is not enough to get them through the school day. Other responses included making the food served healthier, more authentic, and flavorful. Students tend to want more American classic, Chinese, Italian, and hispanic cuisines and there are a number of recipes that students added to the survey to help improve the quality of LC´s lunch. Students also added some of the foods that they would like to see LC provide. For more information about the types of food and recipes that LC students added to the cub reporter survey, please visit the official LC Cub Reporter website.