Sherman students discuss lunch concerns

By Alisha Bentley
Sherman High School

Many students are not fans of school lunches. There are a lot of jokes made about the type of food served in schools. However, some students at Sherman find the positive in their school’s lunch program.

“I think we have a good lunch program. It’s well rounded with nutritional value,” said senior Trevor Harrison.

Junior Maggie Cooper agrees. “I think we have a good variety of meals, and you always have two different choices.”

Sophmore Reagan Meadows doesn’t mind some of the school food, but “sometimes it doesn’t fill you up,” she said.

If that’s the case, do students feel that they’re paying a reasonable amount for school food? At Sherman, students pay $1.25 for lunch and 75 cents for breakfast unless they are on the free or reduced lunch program.

“I think the price is reasonable because they give us a fair amount of food,” said freshman Alec Hunt.

“I don’t think they charge us too much because they allow some people to have reduced lunch or even free lunch,” added junior Tia Long.

However, senior Sharon Holstein points out that even a low cost can add up if students eat the school’s lunch every day. “I do think that school lunch is too expensive because $1.25 is a lot to people who can’t afford it everyday,” she said.

“I used to get reduced lunches and now I pay full price. I think it’s ridiculous,” said sophomore Chad Smith.

And freshman Kayla Smith said, “Making us pay for lunch at school is horrible. It should be free to everyone no matter what your income is.”

One way the school tries to help students is by allowing them to charge their meals if they don’t have cash. But recently a problem with the number of students charging lunch called that practice into question. Still, many students stand behind the policy.

“We should be able to charge lunch because some kids’ parents don’t get paid until a certain time of the month and may not be able to give their child money everyday,” said freshman Brittany May.

If administrators feel that too many students are charging lunch, one compromise could be to limit the number of meals a student can charge in a week or month. Freshman Kaylynn Vermillion thinks this is a reasonable option.

“If students are allowed to charge too often, then the school may lose a profit,” she said.

Cooper agreed that the limit is a good idea but for another reason. “I think there should be a limit on how many lunches you can charge because it will just make it harder to pay the bill off in the end if you keep charging.”

In the meantime, though, some students are worried that they will be denied lunch if they don’t have the money with them to pay. But they shouldn’t worry, according to Richard Goff, the Executive Director of Child Nutrition at the West Virginia Department of Education.

Goff outlined some of the examples of circumstances where students cannot be denied meals. They include when a student has cash to pay for the meal, when he or she is eligible for free meals, when they arrive late for breakfast due to a late bus and when they are already in line for food.

“An administrative decision to deny a meal to a child must be accompanied by sufficient notification that allows the family to make alternate arrangements in order to avoid child neglect,” Goff said. “It is also important to note that the school lunch bill and related debt is the responsibility of the parent or legal guardian and not the student.”