The Student News Site of the Latin School of Chicago

The Forum

The Student News Site of the Latin School of Chicago

The Forum

The Student News Site of the Latin School of Chicago

The Forum

Cafeteria Food

Laura Fisher

Managing Editor

Today I resigned myself to eating a chicken chimichanga at lunch (can anyone explain to me exactly what a chimichanga is?) because I was so sick of burgers and fries. I came home and saw my mum had cooked a rich, creamy pasta dish with prosciutto for dinner and my stomach turned. I’ve eaten chicken nuggets of some form for the past two lunches and each time left the cafeteria with a stomachache. I’m not alone; I mentioned to my sister, freshman Anthea Fisher, that she was in good shape from volleyball and she replied by saying, “Not for long, with all these curly fries!”

What’s happened to the food at our school? The burgers and fries every day originally seemed like a great idea, bringing a safe fallback option if any of the rotating hot entrees just didn’t cut it for you. Now, it’s like the burgers and fried foods have taken over the cafeteria, pushing healthy food onto the reject station where it’s limited to marginally unappealing dishes like…baked sole and Cuban pork loin. Why is that if I want a normal, hot lunch, I have to turn to the greasy and fattening burgers? And another question…why is it that the burgers are covered in raw onions? After a little investigative work, I learned from Ian Marshall, senior, that the student committee created last year to provide input on the cafeteria food didn’t exactly go as planned. Only a few students turned up, so their requests, which turned out to be burgers and fries, ruled supreme.  It seems to me to be a lesson in student involvement: if you don’t get your voice heard, you don’t get what you want. The fate of our cafeteria lunch this year was left in the hands of a few students, leaving us with greasy fried every day of the week. Added to our Latin folklore is a new rumor that the cafeteria is depleting its oil stocks much faster than expected, and has been reusing the same vat of oil for the past few weeks. It’s a little hard to understand why a school that refuses to stock sugary sodas in the cafeteria and prides itself on its healthy salad bar and sushi would have no qualms serving teenager after teenager heaping plates of French fries for lunch. I’ve walked by plenty of students, naïve freshman, and supposedly wise seniors alike who go to their seats carrying a tray loaded with nothing but fries and those doughy chocolate chip cookie bars. I hate to sound like anyone’s mother, but no one can function well and be healthy with that kind of diet. I love the staff at the cafeteria, I really do. I appreciate their effort and believe that they’re doing everything they can to make us happy. Here, however, I think they’ve made a mistake in overlooking nutrition and variety. Maybe Latin needs another Food Committee. And maybe people will actually show up this time.]]>

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Cafeteria Food