Students in classes all over the world often struggle to stay focused. As a student who struggles with this, I think that we need better school lunches. There have been times that I wouldn’t eat lunch because I did not like what they were serving. 

Kids need a choice in their school lunches. We should have multiple choices so that students can choose something they want to eat and something they would enjoy on their own. I remember being in elementary school having to call my mom because the school lunches made me sick and sometimes they even made me throw up. Students should never feel sick after eating a school provided lunch. Lunch should be filling and nutritional, but also enjoyable.

Other schools such as Maine West High School provide their students with 10 different options for school lunches. Taft needs to be more like the schools around us, all students should have options as they would at other schools. Maine West has options such as cheese or pepperoni pizza, cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, chicken caesar salad or garden salad, and even sandwiches or wraps. At taft, we come into lunch each week with the same rotation of foods and no variety of options. Kids at Taft deserve better lunches. Seeing other school’s school lunches is like opening gifts and getting coal while your siblings all get PS5’s. It is not fair to kids at Taft to get bad school lunches while schools around our area get good ones. We deserve better.

The Healthy Schools Campaign agrees that schools need better and more nutritious lunches. Better lunches lead to increased focus and attention from students, as well as improved test scores and better classroom behaviors. Some may say that CPS schools meet requirements when it comes to nutrition but schools have requirements based on calories, grams of saturated fats, and milligrams of sodium. Schools need to have options that make kids enjoy their lunches. The school may meet requirements but that doesn’t always mean that the taste of the food is appealing. 

According to Ordo, “Offering students a variety of options encourages them to experiment and try new foods.” This allows students, especially younger kids, to build healthier eating habits and relationships with foods. Being in school for 8 hours is tiring for kids, having a nice meal that they get to choose from helps students feel in control which leads to them being more focused in their classes. 

Imagine your child going into lunch and not being able to enjoy their food, if there are no other options, what should they do? Kids who grab school lunches need better food choices, they need a variety of meals to pick from to ensure that kids enjoy their meal. 

How would you feel if your child didn’t eat lunch because they did not like what was being served? Schools need to take into consideration that each kid has different preferences and it is not fair to those who do not like certain foods to just not have lunch that day. There are many kids who may depend on school lunches as their main meal or nutrition source each day. 

What if a kid doesn’t have as much access to food at home? How will they get their required nutrition if they don’t like the lunch and there are no other options? CPS needs to think about their students and provide better for them. All students should be able to go to school and enjoy lunch. Schools need to do better, not only for better test scores but for the wellbeing of their students.

Works Cited

Chicago Public Schools, and Healthy Schools Campaign. “Chicago Public Schools’ School Meal Program.” FAQ for Parents, https://healthyschoolscampaign.org/dev/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/FAQ-for-Parents.pdf. Accessed 10 February 2025.

Ordo Inc. “Why Healthy School Lunches are Critical for Students’ Success.” Ordo.com, Ordo, https://www.ordo.com/articles/why-healthy-school-lunches-are-critical-for-students-success#:~:text=By%20offering%20a%20variety%20of,now%20and%20in%20the%20future. Accessed 10 February 2025.

Simmons, Juliana. “School Food Shapes Learning and Health—and Our Food System.” Healthy Schools Campaign, https://healthyschoolscampaign.org/issues/school-food/. Accessed 10 February 2025.