School Lunch: Cutting Waste, Cutting Taste

A student looks down at a bright yellow blob of mac and cheese running into a chunky scoop of rice. A damp side of frozen vegetables sits in a nearby indent of the plate. The milk sitting nearby expires the next day. “The cheese looks faker than McDonalds cheese,” says senior Jackson Hussey, gesturing at his lunch.

According to nutritional facts on the county menu page, this dish (see image) provides 710 calories, assuming there was also a side of fruit. This would need to sustain students for 6 to 8 hours on campus each day. And some students often stay later for extracurricular activities. According to credible estimates, the average teen may burn over 115 calories an hour doing less than moderate activity. A person who is thinking hard may spend 100 more calories a day. 

Free and Unwanted

This year the Hawai’i DOE has expanded a USDA program that provides free “nutritious school meals” to all students regardless of household income. Earlier this year, the school released a letter stating that they would be participating in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program in which all students are eligible to receive free breakfast and lunch, even if some of them do not qualify. 

According to the Hawai’i DOE, any qualifying school has “a minimum of 40 percent or more of its students eligible for free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program.” 

However, many of these lunches are going uneaten. According to a 2023 survey conducted by the Food Research and Action Center, students in Hawai’i are now 17 percent less likely to eat school lunch.

KHON2 investigated this in February and found that students around the state saw school meals as unhealthy, unappetizing, and small. Kids interviewed claimed that “they’d take all of what was offered if it just looked and tasted consistently more edible, more local and fresh.”

“I don't want to serve this,” says John Alexander, our Cafeteria Manager, who orders food for the Lahainaluna cafeteria. “I don’t get much say in the food we get,” he explains. “The food portion is held by a national standard.” Also, the DOE, he said, “is the one sending out the menu.” 

According to Alexander, portions are determined on a USDA portion method called Offer Versus Serve (OVS), which is meant to cut back on waste and allow students to choose the foods they want to eat. It is meant to give students “all five food components in at least the minimum required quantities” according to a USDA OVS memo. LHS students are “actually receiving a half cup more than the minimum requirement,” Alexander added. 

Nevertheless, students like Vi Nguyen, a senior, think that “the school’s lunch portions aren’t enough for growing teens especially since we are nearly adults.” She added that “the school should put more quality into the food they provide as students may be able to perform better and have a more energized attitude throughout the day.” 

“Prison food”

Student Alexa Torres Perez, thinks that some school lunch items are enjoyable such as the kimchi cucumber or Korean chicken. Yet, some items are “almost inedible or taste artificial.” “School lunch isn’t consistently bad,” said Perez, “the meals that are higher quality are so much better and make me feel better, but when certain items are obviously frozen or low quality they make me feel gross.”

Differently, senior James Queja thinks that school lunch “looks like prison food half of the time.”

Band student Dhennico Cabading said that while “the food at school is proportionate to last me through a normal school day as a small meal,” he thinks that it is “hard to finish because I genuinely think that the food is not appetizing.” He added that he thinks “the DOE should give us more food with better quality.”

“I’ll eat it if I’m hungry,” says senior Dylan Paul Lat, “but I’d prefer something else.”

Taking the loss

Athletes on campus are particularly concerned with the size and quality of school lunch. Or, as senior Jackson Hussey said, “If I were to only eat the school lunch I would probably be malnourished.” Hussey stays after school almost every day for football practice so his calorie needs are much higher than the average student.

According to a fact sheet hosted by NBC Sports, “energy needs” for student athletes can be “as high as 3,000 to 5,000 calories per day.” This is 3 times more than what school lunch offers. 

“This stuff is bad, it's dry,” said senior students Micheal Rayray and Kawika Kaili when discussing school lunches they’ve eaten. Micheal and Kawika are both football players that spend as much as 12 hours in school because of afterschool practice.

When asked if they think the school lunch is enough to sustain them throughout the day, they said “No, we need more.” To questions about improving the quality of school lunches, they just said “automatic.”

What we can do

Mr. Alexander felt for the students, but explained that fixing the problem was out of his power. He encouraged students to take their complaints a step further. A poll asking what food options students want would be helpful, he said, “I can make as many suggestions to the DOE about what the kids want to eat but it's more likely they will listen to students rather than me.”