Food for Thought – An Exploration into Mission Bay’s School Lunches
Photo Credit: San Diego Unified School District
Local Farm in San Diego
Related Content
November 29, 2011 • Chohee Park, Staff Reporter
Filed under News, Top Stories
Cafeteria food around the campus of Mission Bay High School for some is something to be feared. Sometimes the food is burnt and unappetizing, other times the food is cold and hard. From poor quality to no knowledge of what they are truly consuming, the students have many mixed emotions about what they are eating. Lunch time for Mission bay High School students isn’t so exciting for their empty stomachs.
Some of the students say the food is decent, but they would like to see enhancements with what they are eating. For instance, when talking to Adilene Ortiz about the food at Mission Bay High School, she said, “The food is too bland, especially the cheeseburgers. The cheese looks fake and has no flavor. The only thing I really like are the potato wedges and mandarin chicken bowls – that is if there was more chicken.” As an athlete at Mission Bay High School, Ortiz added, “Also, the food is not recommended for people who has athletics fourth period. It’s very hard to digest.” In contrast to this statement, another student, Leah Mayfield said, “I like the pasta bowls with cheese, and I also like the chips that they serve with it. I think there can be improvements though, such as better pizza, less frozen fruits and more additions to the salad bar.” With all these different opinions on Mission Bay High School’s cafeteria food, more questions were brought up as to whether or not the students should continue to be fed this way.
District Food Services Information, Including Menus
To gain additional information on how students at Mission Bay High School feel about the cafeteria food, we went to some of the guy athletes to get their opinions. Donshay Bandy, a varsity football player at Mission Bay High School, eats school lunch every day and this is what he had to say about it. “School lunch is somewhat good. I just don’t like how they only have one hot option for breakfast. Also, different drinks such as juice should be served for lunch than milk.” Rodney Dantzler, another varsity football player at Mission Bay High School, had a lot to say about the cafeteria food. “I think we need greater portions of food because guys eat a lot and we get hungry fast. Every option there is for lunch, has little portions of food and I think the amount of food should be increased. If additions can be made to our school lunch, I think we should have more chicken and improvements on quality of the food like cheeseburgers and cheese pizzas.”
With all the complaints and questions about school lunch, we were lucky to have two guest speakers come in and talk to us about how our food is made and cared for. Vanessa Zajfen, farm to school specialist for SDUSD, and Fred Espinosa, Assistant Director of Food Services for the district, who develops new ideas for the student menu, shared their views and the ways our food is processed. Espinosa gave us a general overview of how everything works. “We are always trying to come up with better ways to feed the students. We take this very seriously and try to come up with new and better ideas everyday. About three years ago, we came up with the idea of Sandi Coast, which shows different ethnic themes, making lunch menus more creative and this creates a greater option of food items the students can choose from. Currently, we are working on getting more fresh fruits and vegetables into the main entrees. USDA also is involved in getting certain amount of calories into each meal, so health for the students is very important to us.” Zajfen provided us with more details on the Farm to School program, giving us all the information we needed about obtaining all the students’ vegetables from local farms. “Currently, we are working with Suzie’s Farm to grow squash which will be ready in January. Squash will be added to the students’ lunch, making it more healthy and fresh. We don’t work with just any farms either. We carefully choose small, sustainable, and organic ones that can provide us with fresh vegetables. We travel far as 25 miles from the San Diego border to find local farms and work with them or buy vegetables from them.”
With some time left, our guest speakers were able to get some live feedback from the students, answering questions and complaints at the spot. From yellow broccolis to frozen fruits, Espinosa and Zajfen listened to all the complaints and let the students know that they will be changing preparation processes to make the food as good as possible. “We will figure out different ways to make food fresher by the time it reaches you guys.” Working hard to feed us the right food and helping us concentrate at school better, the food department is also doing their best to give satisfaction to each and every student.
***You can learn more about San Diego Unified’s Farm to Food Program on Facebook, Click the following link: SDUSD Farm to Food Facebook Page
Loading ...
Comments
Please leave a comment about this article...
and if you want your comment published, you must be civil, courteous, and enter your first and last name. Thank you.