September 20, 2024
As of 2021, the Capistrano Unified School District has provided all students with breakfast and lunch free of charge. However, they have failed to prepare safe meals for students with dietary restrictions. Additionally, they have not provided nourishing meals for everyone. Failure to properly provide meals to those with dietary restrictions has led to abundant food waste and danger to the community. SCHS alumni Sara Sims explains that the school could not supply her the “one food [she] could eat.” With a limited number of options for kids with dietary restrictions, the least the school can do is provide students with a guaranteed option they know they can eat. Additionally, Sims describes how she was “forced to take fruit and vegetables that she was allergic to” even after expressing her allergy, causing her to throw the food away. Not only has the issue left many students hungry, it has perpetuated food waste.
There is an excessive number of students with dietary restrictions, and many are not fortunate enough to provide themselves with a proper meal. Students are forced to provide lunches, and failure to do so leaves them hungry. Junior Chloe Miller brings her lunch because at the cafeteria she “can only have fruit” and describes her gratuity towards providing herself with a meal. However, the district has tried to provide more meals in response to disatisfaction. The new vegan chicken sandwich is a better option for many students, but with the lack of knowledge on all the ingredients within the sandwich, the lavish new option becomes useless. Due to the absence of representation of students with several allergies, the school lacks a supply of a guaranteed safe meal for all students.
Even students who do not have allergies receive disappointing meals. Junior Kai Wells says she will never get lunch from the cafeteria again after her experience. She describes the pizza she got as “a grease overload” and claims that “the only healthy part of her meal was a small apple.” Without proper nutrition, students are burnt out by the end of the day, leaving students struggling in the last couple of classes. Wells explains the luxury of having the resources to pack her own lunch, knowing that “she can trust the food she packs for herself” and that she will “not have to depend on the food served in the cafeteria.” Wells recognizes that not everyone is this fortunate and is grateful for being able to “pick what she wants to eat.”
A renovation of lunches in the cafeteria would benefit all students, but especially for students with dietary restrictions. And students without dietary restrictions deserve a healthy meal with more than a small apple as a healthy addition to the meal. If the CUSD could provide better meals to all students, our district would have more satisfied and successful students. Food is fuel.
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