This article was published in the spring 2011 Southerner News magazine.

The new school lunches have more whole grains, less sugar, fat, and sodium, and overall “less junk,” according to food service worker Teresa Conway. Although the food is becoming healthier, some students think differently. “It doesn’t seem healthy, and doesn’t look fresh,” said junior Gahn Kelly.

Lunch is a time of the day where students are given the chance to take a break, socialize, and of course, eat. While some students bring their lunch from home, others purchase food at school, and over the past couple of years the Minneapolis Public School lunches have changed, with the goal to get healthier and more balanced lunch choices.

Sophomore Raquel Bajuscik doesn’t mind school food. “We don’t always have good food at my house, and school lunch is good most of the time,” said Bajuscik, “so I don’t normally bring a lunch from home.” Bajuscik claims the new food is “yummy and seems healthier.”

Some students choose to eat out at lunch instead of buying one from school. “I think the school lunch is nasty besides the salad.” said senior Sattoria Rule. Rule takes the option of purchasing her lunch from somewhere outside the school, like Subway.

Although Subway may seem like a healthier choice, if you choose to buy a foot long sub calories can stack up to over 600 if ordered off the menu. Even higher if you choose the toppings yourself. Plus the fat in chips, cookies, and soda add into the amount of calories and saturated fat. Of course, it is possible to eat healthy at Subway, but the serving sizes available for the customer are a lot larger than necessary.

If you choose to purchase a South High lunch, the servings are proportional to the recommended daily intake of calories for teenagers, which is 2200 a day. There is less sodium, calories, and fat. Overall it is a healthier, and not to mention cheaper (two dollars or less) than eating out, and you could qualify for free lunch.

According to mypyramid.gov, a United States Department of Agriculture website, half of your grains should be whole, you should eat a variety of vegetables, add fruit to any snacks or meals, have calcium rich foods, and eat lean meats. Conway says students have the choice to take three servings of vegetables and fruit with one meal and the kitchen uses as much whole grain as they can when making lunch.

Nutrition Services tries to include different options for students with different diets. For vegetarians, there are options of salad, wraps, and other non-meat items. If students do chose a meat option, like a hamburger, it is made of 100 percent beef.

According to Nutrition Services Director Rosemary Dederichs, they changed much of the lunch food, taking away some items, while adding others. They removed the fryers and took french fries off the menu. They also removed corndogs and hotdogs.

With these foods being removed, some student like Sophomore Maryan Garane, think there are not enough choices for lunch. She believes that the salsa is watery and the fruit doesn’t seem fresh, like the apples. “It’s what we eat everyday,” said Garane. “It gets boring.” That said, the food services are trying to make more quality food instead of large quantity of serving sizes and unhealthy choices.

Whole muscle chicken and 100 percent beef are used. Their goal is to remove highly processed foods and make more of the food at the school. “School is the place to model good diet behavior,” said Dederichs. “Many kids don’t know the right serving sizes.” According to Dederichs, one serving of veggies is one half of a cup. One serving of meat should be the size of a deck of cards.

Dederichs served on the Institute of Medicine, which decides the new regulations and changes to be made to the breakfast and lunch menus. They change the dietary guidelines every five years. Childhood obesity is a problem they are trying to fix. There used to just be a minimum number of calories in each school meal; now there is also a maximum.

If Dederichs could say one thing to the students it would be to “give us a chance.” She said she believes students insult the lunches without knowing the facts.