By Alex Eskew
Photo by Nabeeh Ndiaye
Being in our school building every day, most of us have had to resort to the school-supplied cafeteria lunch for sustenance. For some, it may even be the only hot meal available to them if they didn’t bring lunch from home.
But how many of us truly know where this food comes from? I sure didn’t. With the intent of figuring this out, I have communicated with several sources from our school building to uncover the origins of our lunch. Keep in mind that this only pertains to the Willow School’s high school campus cafeteria.
Finding information on this topic was more difficult than anticipated, with the front office having to refer me to other sources.
“Our lunch program is provided by the New Orleans Public Schools association, or NOPS for short,” said Ms. Nancy Plough, Business Office Manager for Willow. “They cook the meals which are provided to us, and when students pay for lunch, that money goes straight to NOPS. They work strictly as contractors for lunch. Our school does not profit from the lunch program.”
Now that I had a clear answer on who is being paid for the food we receive, I wanted to dig into who else they serve in the community. Looking at their website, NOPS serves other local schools such as Ben Franklin Elementary and Willow Elementary, as well as Benjamin Franklin High and NOCCA.
While their website shows an extensive menu with alternate meal options for each day, I have yet to see many of the items on the menu served in the Willow High cafeteria, as it seems the variation line is no longer being offered. In past years, a second option, such as a sandwich or salad bar, were available, but now there’s only the one line offered. I’d like to see more of the varied items on the menu, but what I can recall eating the most are the red beans, the spicy chicken sandwich, and the fried fish.
“One day I ate school lunch, and it made me rethink my life,” said junior Ariel Arellano. “I need to set aside more time to prepare my own lunch at home.”
Some students say the portions are often not enough to get them through the rest of the school day.
“On a good day, they load us up with a whole plate, leaving me satisfied, but most of the time I’m still starving after eating,” said junior Douglas Herre.
“Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on,” senior Luke Saucier said. “I just got some meatballs and sauce, so I guess they ran out of noodles.”
So, while we may now know who provides our lunch in terms of organizational wherewithal, and many of us find it falling short in terms of quality, variety, and portion, no one I spoke with has any complaints about the ladies on staff who serve the lunch everyday.
“I have friends who get school lunch,” said sophomore Sage Novak, “and they’re often given extra food because I’m with them in line even though I have my own lunch from home.”
“The lunch ladies are nice to me every day,” said junior Jake Guichet. “If I had a rough morning with school, they make me feel better by giving me compliments and saying it’s nice to see me.”
The perfect school lunch situation? Better quality food, and more of it, served by the same ladies we already know and love.
