School lunch has been quite the topic over these past pandemic years. Especially here at EHS, there has been many discussions about the fall of school lunches. As we know, since the pandemic hit, school lunches are now free for all students at the EHS, but the price to pay was the drop in quality.

Ever since the pandemic hit, the fate of school lunches has been in uncertainty. A lot of our students have been complaining about the steep price of $3 for lunch before the pandemic, but now, lunches are completely free. This encourages students to get lunch at school instead of making their own since the food is now available to everyone. Furthermore, the “specials” everyday are still available, giving students a sort of variety.

“I used to make my own lunch before”, said an anonymous student. “Now I eat at school since it’s free and I don’t have to go through the hassle of making sandwiches or putting together snacks.”

On the other hand, the steep drop in quality and quantity has garnered a lot more complaints than the steep price pre-pandemic. Lunches are now more “bland”, less in quantity and the food went from having 4 different stalls to only one hot food stall and cold food shelves. Some students who used to buy 2 lunch meals now are only limited to 1. While there are a good variety of “specials”, there aren’t a lot of quality specials that appeal to students.

“A lot of the specials are just inedible for me. They’re bland and usually not very good at all. While there are some really good specials, I usually have to stick with the burger and floppy, greasy fries,” said one anonymous student.

However, as pandemic restrictions lighten, school lunch has been improving. Last Monday, February 21st, the salad bar and self-serve sauce jugs were returned for students to use. It is only a matter of time for school lunches at this point to return to full capacity and serve out great food for students to enjoy.