Is the price for lunch too much? Or do we just not know what we are paying for?

The FCPS school lunch flat rate is $2.75, which covers an entrée and FOUR sides. However, most students do not know that they can take two fries AND two fruit/vegetables with their entrée and milk for the regular price.

Teenagers often have insatiable appetites and make countless snack-line runs to satisfy their hunger. Most of these students would not need to pay for extra junk food if they knew they could get an entrée, milk, and four sides. However, most students go through their entire lives only getting two sides because the lunch line does not publicize the amount of food you can get for $2.75.

Also, the school lunch trays are physically not big enough to fit an entrée, milk, and four sides. I often have to stack my tray to the gills to fit all the sides. The bottom line is, every single person who goes through the lunch line here at WS is paying for food that they don’t know about, and even if they did know, they could not fit this food on their tray anyway.

There are also other issues with our lunch system. Students can be charged up to 75 cents for milk, juice, water and all the condiments like ketchup, as well. Is this fair? Perhaps it’s better to just bring a good old brown bag lunch instead.

However, FCPS did put up a chart on their website comparing the prices of a homemade lunch, said lunch being a turkey sandwich with chips, carrots, an apple, and milk; stating that students would be saving about $1.02 by paying for the lunches in middle and high schools, and would save $1.12 in elementary schools.

Despite the pricing issues, school lunches have improved in many ways this year. The fruit and vegetables are fresher than they have ever been, and there is a great variety, with anything from carrots to strawberries to kiwis. Also, FCPS introduced a yogurt parfait with fruit, which is healthy, delicious, and also very filling.

As a solution to the pricing issue, I think FCPS should do away with the convoluted “stars” system and just post the prices for meals and how much food you can get for each meal. This would make it easier for students to appease their hunger without spending extra money or filling up on junk food.