An average of 400 students at Oliver Ames are served a school lunch every day, a number that represents over one third of the student body at the high school. Despite this fact, school food is never even given a second thought by many of the students and staff at the school, whether they eat it or not.
In conversations with over fifteen students from all four grades, it became apparent that not many of them knew much about how the school lunch program runs. The students ranged from never eating school lunches to eating school lunches every day of the week.
When asked where they thought the school food ingredients come from, students often had to pause a minute before answering. Even then, most responded by saying that they didn’t know. A few students took a guess. Kelsey Yelle, who eats school lunches every day, guessed that the food ingredients came from “throughout America,” and Richard Hanna, who eats school food four days a week, thought that they came from a factory.
Answers to the question ‘Where do you think the food is prepared?’ varied, but most students answered that it was prepared in the kitchen. Some suggested that the food might be frozen or premixed when it got to the school, and then heated up.
Students were much more sure about how the food gets to the school. An overwhelming majority of the students thought that the food gets to the school by truck.
The most divided answers came about the question ‘Do you care where the school food comes from?’. Most of the students who do not eat school food answered that they don’t care where it comes from because it doesn’t apply to them. Among the students who do eat school food, however, there were two main groups. One group cared strongly about what went into their bodies. As Richard Hanna put it, “I don’t want to put nasty stuff in my body.” The other group tended to care more about how the food looked and tasted than where it came from.
Only two students could name any person who serves the food or who works in the cafeteria.
While the interviews show that many of these students know little about school food, teachers are not exempt from the ignorance. Seven teachers were interviewed, and most of their answers lined up with what students thought, such as the food getting to the school in a truck. In general, the teachers thought that the food is mostly prepared somewhere other than the school kitchen. Though most of the teachers I interviewed don’t eat the school food, almost all care where the food comes from. As Mrs. Neely put it, “I love the kids,” and she continued to say that the body needs more than processed foods for fuel.