Mount Saint Joseph High School has had a variety of school lunches in the past two to three years. At the start of the 2021-2022 school year, the school was partnered with Unidine. After all the students returned from winter break, St. Joe changed the partnership to Campus Cuisine. Now to begin the 2022-2023 school year, we are partnered with CulinArt. As a student at MSJ, I have heard many opinions on lunches, and during the past week, I’ve interviewed a few classmates to get their views.
Embed from Getty ImagesI started with senior Adam Kripas. He told me that his favorite school lunch was this year’s CulinArt. He said he liked CulinArt over the previous year’s lunch, Campus Cuisine, where you had to order ahead of time. His reason was that some days he would come in and not want the thing he ordered anymore, or if he didn’t order something, he liked the concept of just being able to go in and buy school lunch.
I also interviewed junior Barry Smith, who said nearly the same thing as Adam. He said last year wasn’t bad, but it got repetitive. Barry also enjoys this year’s CulinArt school lunch. He likes not having to worry about ordering his lunch ahead of time and being able to buy whatever you want in the cafeteria. He also likes the variety of options, unlike Campus Cuisine.
I interviewed other students, but their answers were the same. Many students seem to like coming into school and buying lunch in the cafeteria instead of having a deadline to order their food.
I interviewed Mr. Mike Burgess, who has been working in the Mount Saint Joseph cafeteria since 2007. He has seen and worked with many different companies and school lunches. Although this year is a new partnership, kids are still buying the same things as always. Mr. Mike said the most cooked meals are chicken tenders, fries, and stromboli – “boy foods,” as he referred to them. He said that that is what the boys want more of and less of the special foods they eat at home. He said, “here, you have the freedom to have different things.” The focus is to provide meals that the students will choose.
To prove Mr. Mike’s point, the students I interviewed, including Adam and Barry, said their favorite things to buy are chicken tenders and fries.
While things have been in flux over the past few years in the cafeteria, it seems as if things have stabilized, and the students seem happy with the current offerings that CulinArt offers. We can only hope that this stability continues and that food choices improve as the school year continues.
