NYC-Feature Story

Dreading the Lunch Line
School cafeterias need a makeover

By Annmarie Turton

A little after ten in the morning, kids descend on the cafeteria like a swarm of thirsty honeybees. The crowds fracture into their particular groups and the decibel level rises sharply.

“Time to line up,” the school aide shouts above the noise.

The biggest boys jump up from their seats and make a mad dash for the lunch line. But the “popular” kids react differently. One group of girls, no matter how hungry they are, forgoes lunch because they don’t want to be seen eating free food.

“I don’t want that free sh-t. Only lames eat that stuff,” they say.

“Do you really wanna to be seen as the first one on line?” a boy says to a friend who was rushing out of this seat. The boy ignores the comment, but a nearby girl who was about to get on line sits back down, ashamed. This pattern repeats every day at my school and other high schools across the city.

‘Welfare Food’

I eat school lunch almost daily—I can’t function on an empty stomach—but for many teens the chicken patties and mashed potatoes come with a side order of shame. Even Jorge Collazo, Executive Chef of New York City’s SchoolFood office, knows that there is a stigma associated with lunch.

“I was in a Brooklyn cafeteria once and these boys were hiding in a corner eating lunch,” Collazo remembered. “When I asked one boy what he was doing, he said, ‘I don’t want girls to see me eating the food.’ There’s a lot of social stigma that you’re getting ‘welfare food’ or whatever,” he said.

The atmosphere doesn’t help, either. “The cafeterias are a lot of metal and glass, like an institution,” Collazo said. “And that tray kills us. People hate that thing. It’s like you’re in prison.” To counter the stigma, some schools are changing their appearance to look more like real cafés. For example, at Lehman High School in the Bronx, the Department of Education (DOE) is planning to replace the lunch line with islands where students serve themselves instead of being served by lunch ladies. Some schools have even started hanging posters and other art to make their cafeterias more attractive.

The Real Shame

Personally, I doubt the marketing makeover will completely lift the stigma that surrounds school food. Real change will only come when the quality of the food gets better. I am not ashamed of eating the food, but I am ashamed of the way it’s prepared.

I once went on line hoping to get a delicious spaghetti and meatball meal—as the menu promised—but my hopes were dashed when the lunch lady plopped leftover taco meat in tomato sauce on top of my spaghetti. I looked at the container it came from. The meat was floating around in burgundy oil that looked like it had been used and reused until it was on the last of its nine lives.

Other times, I’ve stepped out of the line because the food looked or smelled terrible. I skipped lunch once when the only option left was cheesy fish, a concoction that makes your breath stink incredibly.

Chef Jorge said that better food comes down to the skill of the cooks. In that case, I think the DOE should provide more professional training for as many cooks as possible. They should also increase the number of healthy items on offer, such as fruits and vegetables. They’ve already started offering salad bars and providing cooking classes for their staff, which are great steps. In the meantime, I’ll keep going to the lunch line and hoping for the best.

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