When schools across America reopened their doors after the Coronavirus pandemic, many of them were able to take advantage of free lunch programs offered by the government. In the case of Alhambra High School, these benefits are still prevalent to this day. While this is an amazing accomplishment for the district and the students, the food being served needs to be improved.
It is no surprise that school food within the United States is often subpar. Often pre-made and cost-focused, the food served in school is often really cheap and does not consider the factor of nutrition. This is certainly true at Alhambra, where the food is prepared offsite, standardized, and shipped off to schools. This system allows for the school food to be cheaper and made more efficiently. But schools are not businesses and instead serve for the good of the students inside it. Prioritizing efficiency and cost over students and student health is something that the district needs to be held accountable for.
To add on, there are two breakfast services available at AHS: breakfast and Nutrition. Food served during Nutrition, which is packaged in grab-and-go bags, contrary to the name, has no valuable nutrients. Instead, the students are offered sugary pastries like chocolate donuts, cinnamon rolls, and Pop-Tarts.
Before school starts, breakfast is served to students which is a little better than Nutrition as it provides more food options. However, the same flaws still remain.
Though the quality of food served during breakfast and lunch tends to be better than food offered during Nutrition, many of the food options are still packaged and highly-processed. To make up for this, students are required to grab a fruit or a vegatable. Nonetheless, to call a majority of this food “nutritious” is a lie, and there is no reason why the school should think any of this is acceptable.
At a time when health issues are increasingly linked to cheap, processed foods, schools needs to prioritize the health of their students. Because at the end of the day, even if students receive the best education to ever be offered by any school in the nation, a simple heart attack can void all that progress.