Middle school lunches are practical infamous. Across the entire medium of middle school books, every school lunch is described as disgusting. If you’ve ever read a fiction book about middle school, you know what I mean. But is it really true? Well, I can’t speak for any other schools, but I’m sure a few students from our school could tell us what they think.

Interviews:

First, Mercy Forrister (6), who eats the school lunch about once a week, says: “I think it is really good because the food at elementary school was… not so great.” That may be putting down wherever she went to elementary school, but at least she gave good ol’ CVMS a good rating.

Other students agreed. Rafay Chaudhry (6) was like-minded, but he isn’t quite as big a fan of the lunch as Forrister is. “It’s pretty good.” he said. “Better than elementary school.” {Man, did everybody hate their elementary school lunches?} So what was so great about the school lunch? For Chaudhry, the pizza was his favorite. And he’s not alone.

Sujit Kushalnagar (6) enjoys the pizza too. “It tastes good,” he says of the school lunch. However, there is one problem for him. “Except, at times,” he reveals, “the pizza runs out.” Uh oh. But really, its not that surprising. Pizza seems to be the most popular item on the menu. Man. I have to find a student who doesn’t have pizza as their top item.

Luckily, along came Sourav Menon, who’s favorite item was “ice cream,” and, wait for it, “pizza.” Come on! Somebody! Is there someone who doesn’t like pizza out there? Apparently so. When asked if he likes the school lunch, Levi Dominguez (8) said it short but sweet: “Heck nah! I only like the deli.” Ok, maybe not sweet, but short at least. Oh well: I found someone who’s favorite wasn’t pizza. “One to ten,” he decided, “I’d probably have to say 5.” Harsh. But he knows what he likes. “I usually go the deli sandwich, I get the normal ones, you know, not the croissant thing, the other thing and then I get some turkey, cheddar, you know, pickles, lettuce, onions and then jalapenos, but they’re not even hot.” For someone who doesn’t like the lunch, he knows a lot about it.

Now that we know what they think, I suppose I should compile a chart. I asked a few more students what they thought so I could make this and see the final verdict.

So there you have it. They say the numbers don’t lie. And hopefully, neither do the students I interviewed. But was that enough to satisfy me? No! I decided to eat the school lunch for myself: and here’s how it went.

The Meal:

For my first meal, I got the fabled pizza, among some other items. Here’s what I had:

The pizza of legend was actually very good. I think the pizza had run out and I got a kind of homemade kind, but it was really good. The watermelon pieces looked really juice-less, but they were OK (Only one tasted like real watermelon). I also got a sort of “health” smoothie (I don’t think it had any nutritional value) that was surprisingly good. lastly, I got an Izze, but I didn’t have time to drink that. Overall, I liked it.

The next day, I got the fabled Deli as well as a Snapple and a piece of bread with (presumably) blueberries. The Snapple was good, and the Deli wasn’t the best, but it was good. However, the cake was weird. When I picked it up, it stuck to my hands. As a test, I poked the bread lightly and my finger came up with a chunk of it stuck on it. I shook my hand and it didn’t come off. The “blueberries” were hard and tiny and frozen. Gross. My friend told me it was cake. Other than that, I enjoyed the school lunch and think it deserves about a 7/10 rating.

Credits: Baker: interviews and writing.

Andrew: interviews.