In November of 2024, the school hired Ms. Natalie Roser, Director of Food and Nutrition, who started changing the menu. She changed the menu so that kids will want to eat healthier, and so it is cost-effective. Some of these changes include the recent replacement of the yogurt basket with a yogurt parfait and the addition of homemade pizza. 

“I’ve noticed a lot of positive feedback with the kids,” Ms. Roser said. 

She tries to get down to our lunches as often as possible, and while down here, she asks students about the lunches.

“I think that the changes to the menu were positive,” Chloe Donaldson (6) said. 

A standard middle school lunch at our school must include one 2-oz protein item, one fruit cup, two cups of vegetable choice, two oz of grains, and one cup of milk. The school lunches have a variety of foods, from the daily chicken patty to the weekly bosco sticks. These changes have made the menu healthier and more affordable for the school. 

The school lunches are both cheaper and more nutritious than McDonald’s Happy Meals. Happy Meals are around $4.99, contain no vegetables, and have minimal fruit options, with only apple slices as a choice. Our school lunches are $2.65, and we get a choice of vegetables and fruit. The lower costs and nutritious choices make it better for students to eat and help to encourage healthy eating habits.

It’s not just the lunch menu changing either; the breakfast menu has also changed with the addition of the sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich and the pancake and sausage bites.

“On average, students who eat school breakfast have been shown to achieve 17.5% higher scores of standardized math tests,” according to the School Nutrition Association.

Not only is the menu for both breakfast and lunch affordable for the school, but it is also healthier and more nutritious for us.