Students tried some new food options for new menu ideas. Students did this taste testing during lunch in the cafeteria on Tuesday, Dec. 12 through Friday, Dec 15.
“We are doing the tasting fair to get some new ideas and student perspectives for next school year, but may see some changes yet this year,” Director of Food Services Cassandra Goldamer said.
So far, the mac & cheese with bbq pork and the parfaits have gotten the most votes. Despite the high votes for the yogurt parfaits, the new menu additions will most likely be full meal options.
“This fair was my idea to get some feedback from the students and have a little fun interacting with the students,” Goldamer said.
The new food is going to be more expensive to add to the menu than keeping the older options.
“I think that this is a good idea, but I also think that there’s no point in adding new food to the menu since most kids don’t eat here, so the school is just wasting their money,” sophomore Veda Jecevicus said.
The goal of this food tasting is to get more students to eat school lunch.
“I think that this is a really good idea especially since they’re getting the students’ feedback instead of just adding food to the menu that students don’t like,” junior Lydia Deffibaugh said. “I also like the fact that they’re doing this now to get rid of the same repeating options and help open up the school menu.”
Although the students enjoy the thought of new foods there is a lot of planning to do.
“A lot goes into the menu planning, as we have calorie, sodium and other restrictions to abide by. We have many rules we have to follow and in turn the students have to follow. A big one being that each student has at least half cup fruit or vegetable on their tray,” Goldamer said.