“It’s not something I look forward to…”, “We need a higher budget.”, “They’re repetitive and bland.” These critical words are how students feel about our school lunches but hopefully not for long. As of recently Prince George’s County has been making many advancements regarding students nutrition. We already have free breakfast and soon will have hot suppers after school. Another one of these changes is a new lunch menu. On November 5th from 6-8pm county board members held a school lunch taste testing for new lunch menu items. The goal of this new menu is to make lunch tastier and more accessible to students with dietary restrictions while continuing to meet federal and state guidelines.
Looking around the cafeteria there are many students who choose not to eat lunch at school. This could be for a plethora of reasons but one of those reasons is the quality of our lunches. It got to a point where students started an instagram account with the sole purpose of reviewing and criticizing our school lunches. Much of the blame for the food’s quality is put on the kitchen staff but it really isn’t their fault. According to the 2024 comprehensive maintenance plan for Prince George’s County Public Schools, $1,500,000 was approved for “Kitchen and Food Services” for the entire county that year. This area was given one of the least amounts of money out of any other area that needed funding. Even “Parking lots/Driveways” got more money than the food students and staff members eat almost every day. So our county and lunch staff have to stay within their small budget for meals while upholding USDA and Maryland state guidelines.
With student meal guidelines constantly changing it’s a struggle to keep up with everything that needs to be adjusted. With these new menu items their goal is to lower added sugars, remove enriched grains and switch to strictly whole grains, and reduce sodium. Not only that but also adding vegetarian and vegan options while adding fresh herbs and spices that are better for the environment. With these new improvements hopefully students will actually start looking forward to their lunches.
At the tasting 4 new meals were served. 100% beef meatballs with Korean barbecue sauce or Italian sauce, an Asian salad, plant-based spaghetti sauce, and plant-based taco filling.
Meatballs with Italian sauce
“It smells great!” Janice Isemaria, a junior from Bowie High School says. “The meatball sub is really good, I love Hawaiian bread and not whole wheat.” She mentioned the fact that at lunch students typically receive whole wheat bread, while healthy, it doesn’t taste very good. This menu item was very popular with many of the students.
Meatballs with Korean barbecue sauce and Asian salad
Not everything served was favored by students, in particular the Asian salad. “It was disgusting, I couldn’t even swallow it,” an anonymous student said. While dramatic, the salad really didn’t taste good with other students saying, “…it’s too ambitious for a school lunch.”
Pasta with plant-based meat
Blessing Chang, another Bowie High School student says, “The pasta could use more seasoning…” The current lunch rotations already include pasta but what makes this one different is the plant-based meat used which can be eaten by vegetarian and vegan students.
Taco filling
Finally, taco filling (or nachos) were served using that same plant-based meat. “This is a 9.5 out of 10”, one student rated it. This item was the most popular by far, many people even went back for seconds and thirds! The meal was served as a build-your-own taco bar but it’s unclear if this style would actually be upheld in a cafeteria lunch line.
A real effort is being made into the nutritional quality and quantity of students’ meals and that isn’t going unnoticed. Students value and appreciate how hard the county is working at making school a place where students feel safe and have the energy to learn!