The Good, The Bad, and The Hungry

Food is a necessity in life. For students who don’t leave high school during lunch, school lunch is often a popular choice. Hot lunch is normal for most school kids in America because they’re very reliant on quick meals. However, the food doesn’t always accommodate everyone’s preferences or dietary restrictions. On average, the school feeds nearly a hundred kids each day.

An average high school student needs 2000 calories a day for females and 2450 calories a day for males. This varies from person to person depending on their height, size, age, and metabolism. People should eat about 30% of their daily calories at lunch if they have eaten breakfast. This also means people eat about 20% of their daily calories at breakfast, 10% from snacks and 40% at dinner. 

However, about 75% of high school students in America don’t eat breakfast in the morning. Sophomore Daisy Anderson says, “I don’t have time usually, but if we make like banana bread, then I’ll just grab it on my way out.” The school offers breakfast, although most kids don’t have enough time to get it with school buses arriving with little time before school. 

This requires the kids to make up for it during lunch, consuming 40-50% of their calories.

 Keeping in mind that everyone is different and everyone needs a different amount of calories each day, an average high school male that doesn’t eat breakfast needs to eat between 1,000 to 1,225 calories at lunch while females need between 800 to 1,000 calories. 

The average school lunch is composed of fruit or vegetables, chips, and a main course, such as a hotdog or burger. Other options include salads, spaghetti, chili, or pizza. This results in 400-600 calories per meal. 

While this is sufficient, the current school lunch price discourages most people from eating it. The current cost is $3.50, and most students would rather bring their own lunch or buy stuff from outside of school. Student Tristan Butler believes it was better when lunch was free, “I liked it when it was free because it was a lot more convenient for everybody and helped everyone out a lot more. But right now, it's a little harder because we're paying for it. I don't like that.” 

      Even if one serving of lunch isn't enough, they charge you again for a second serving totaling the price for 1,000 calories at $7.00. When people go home for lunch, they have more freedom to eat what they want. Most of it has already been paid for by their parents or guardians. However, for kids that can’t drive, school lunch is an easy and quick alternative.