Students at Da Vinci Communications often complain about the school lunch quality. Many students think the food served by the cafeterias could be more appetizing and tasteful.

During a random week in September 2022, the menu entailed breaded chicken drumsticks, beef hot dogs on whole wheat, teriyaki glazed chicken, popcorn chicken, and cheese-stuffed breadsticks. All of these foods have to meet certain requirements in order to be served, in accordance with the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service explained how this act requires school lunches to be so nutritious. 

“The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act allowed USDA, for the first time in over 30 years, the opportunity to make real reforms to the school lunch and breakfast programs by improving the critical nutrition and hunger safety net for millions of children,” the website states.

If you ask most Da Vinci students if school lunches have improved in terms of flavor, the answer would be an easy no. Although school lunches may have improved in terms of nutrition, the taste definitely hasn’t. Lots of Da Vinci students express their concerns about the school lunch. Even though these school lunches are supposed to be filling because they’re nutritious, DVC junior Aaron Sims shared the opposite. 

“No, it’s not great. It’s like not very fulfilling, but like the amount of food that they give, and the food that they give, like, it’s not enough food to have for lunch and then be thankful. [I’m] usually hungry again by like, third period. I mean, some of the things that they serve are questionable, like Salisbury steak. It should not be given to students. That should not be allowed,” Sims said.

This possibly implies that Da Vinci school lunch may not even be healthy in the first place. The problem with the school lunch could also be the quality of the food, since it is mass distributed. The cafeterias need enough food to serve hundreds of students every day. The expectations that cafeteria food is healthy and delicious should be lowered. Another DVC junior, Aston Turney, provided his input on the school’s food quality.

“These are transition homes, people getting back into society from prison is the same exact food in the education system. As soon as I started talking about it, [my mom] recognized those box mashed potatoes, the same thing from the prisons, the one using them, the patties are not even 99 Cent Store worthy and I’m not even joking. It’s not good for our bodies, it doesn’t seem nutritious, because people are hungry for like 30 minutes or even want to eat some snacks again, because the only thing it’s giving you is fuel and fake sugar,” Turney revealed.

So the main problem with Da Vinci school lunch is that it is neither delicious nor nutritious, not to mention the fact that it’s not even filling for students. A lot of Da Vinci students avoid eating the school lunch for these reasons. In conclusion, the fact that schools try to make lunches healthy is only one of the reasons it’s unappetizing. 

*This article was not written with the intention of disrespecting the cafeteria staff or the people that help prepare the food. We thank them for serving our lunch and are grateful for them.*