If you eat the school lunch—or even if you don’t—you’re probably aware that this school year has come with some substantial changes to the IHS cafeteria. Students have experienced these changes without warning or explanation, leading to some frustration and dissatisfaction. The Tattler Editorial Board set out to investigate the intentions and inner workings of the new cafeteria system, present the student body with the background information necessary to understand the current situation, and ensure that administration is aware of student concerns.
Until this year, each ICSD school received different lunches, depending on the decisions made by individual cafeteria managers. Jamie Zervos worked as the executive chef at IHS for the past seven years, and during this time the IHS cafeteria staff had the freedom to try out more experimental and intricate recipes that students considered very tasty. This year, in an effort by ICSD to ensure consistency across schools, all lunches are made in the Boynton cafeteria and transported to schools across the district. While this shift in production has prompted student dissatisfaction, with forty-three out of fifty-two returning IHS students surveyed reporting that “the lunches this year are worse than last year,” there are benefits to this new system, especially when put in the broader context of the district. At a Board of Education (BoE) meeting on August 22, 2023, Zervos explained that her seven years of cooking at the high school had allowed her to test out different recipes, and with the new standardization of lunches across the district, she is looking forward to serving her most popular finds to the lower grade levels.
The cafeteria has also undergone structural changes. Lunches at the high school are now being served from the cafeteria and the concession stand outside Bliss Gym, and the food lockers from the 2022-2023 school year are no longer available. The differentiation between cafeteria lines has also disappeared, as the “grab-and-go” and pizza lines have been replaced with two main lines serving all available choices.
The entirety of ICSD follows a six-week rotation for main lunches, with two options being available every day: one vegetarian, and one non-vegetarian. However, the vegetarian option often disappears quickly, and if a student arrives towards the end of lunch, there is a good chance that the hot vegetarian meal will no longer be available. Out of fifteen vegetarian students surveyed, thirteen reported that they do not have enough options. Given that IHS contains a good number of vegetarian students, some with nutritional motives, some with ethical or environmental concerns, and some abstaining from certain animal products for religious reasons, it is imperative that vegetarian options are always available, regardless of when a student arrives at the lunch line. Every day, there is also a cold sandwich available as a third lunch option, but these sandwiches often disappear within the first half of lunch and almost always contain meat. To make the school cafeteria more accessible to students who don’t eat meat, the school could replace deli meat in some of these sandwiches with hummus, seitan, or tofu, and ensure that these sandwiches are available throughout the entirety of the lunch period.
Lunches have also changed in response to new United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutritional standards, which severely limit the amount of sodium and added sugars allowed in school meals. In February 2023, the USDA released a long-term plan to gradually increase the nutritional value of cafeteria foods, with the goal of reducing diet-related diseases such as type two diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. By 2027, added sugar should compose less than ten percent of a meal’s total calorie content, and by 2029, the sodium content should be reduced by thirty percent. Both of these reductions will be implemented over time, giving lunch programs time to adjust. The plan also emphasizes whole grains and locally sourced ingredients, both of which are being served in ICSD, with the district now using Ithaca Bakery bread, Smith’s Quality Eggs, Ithaca Tofu, and other local foods.
To further increase the nutritional value of its school meals, ICSD is partnering with the Chef Ann Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to provide schools all over the country with the resources they need to serve fresh, wholesome meals in their cafeterias. Through this collaboration, as well as an additional partnership with the Park Foundation (a local organization), ICSD schools have each implemented an unlimited salad bar, offering a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as proteins and other toppings. Particularly at the elementary schools, the salad bar serves not only to increase produce intake, but also to encourage nutritious eating habits from a young age.
Nutritional concerns also played a role in the removal of “à la carte” items, such as chips, ice cream, and the well-loved cafeteria cookies, as ICSD works towards limiting sugary snacks with little nutritional value. However, this change was also part of the district’s attempts to increase equity in the school cafeteria. As ICSD’s Nutrition Director Beth Krause stated at the August 22 BoE meeting, “if one student can buy a bottle of water and the one behind them can’t afford it, it’s not equitable.”
Efforts to make cafeteria meals more sustainable are underway as well—reusable sporks trays have been rolled out in some ICSD schools and will eventually make their way to IHS, as will milk served in bulk, rather than in single-use cartons, with reusable cups.
Important steps have also been taken in addressing food insecurity in the community. Beginning in December, every student in ICSD will have access to a free lunch and breakfast, without being required to qualify or fill out an application. This is the result of an expansion of the Community Eligibility Provision, a federal meal program based on district poverty rates, and in coordination with the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. Additionally, the IHS Library has been making strides of its own by partnering with the School Food Center and the Food Bank of the Southern Tier to make free food available to students to bring home to their families, including canned goods, frozen meals, and fresh produce. The service is completely confidential; all students need to do is fill out an order form sent to their emails regularly and go to the library after school to pick up the food.
Despite the strong efforts by ICSD and cafeteria staff to meet new federal guidelines, increase nutritional quality, and improve the equity and sustainability of school meals, the recent changes to the lunch system have been met with heavy backlash from IHS students. A primary concern among students is that school lunches do not provide enough food, with around half of seventy-five students surveyed reporting that they “rarely” or “never” feel satisfied by lunch portions. Serving nutrient-dense food is important, but serving enough of such food is equally important. Furthermore, twenty-two out of twenty-three student-athletes surveyed reported that school lunches do not consistently provide enough energy for their practices. Vivian Molnar ’24, a member of the IHS Girls’ Varsity Swim Team, said that although she enjoys and fully utilizes the salad bar, the main meals are too small, stating, “I barely get enough calories to make it through the school day, let alone practice.” She added that without bringing extra snacks from home, she is “irritable and exhausted” as early as fifteen minutes into her swim practice. Like Molnar, many athletes bring their own pre-practice snacks, but if some athletes can afford to bring extra food to school and others cannot, a small school lunch puts lower-income athletes at a disadvantage. And beyond student-athletes, leaving any student feeling hungry is inequitable, given that some students do not have enough to eat at home and rely heavily on school lunches for nutrition. It is unclear whether ICSD has the power to increase portion sizes, or if they are restricted by state or federal guidelines.
The 2023-2024 school year has come with substantial changes to the school lunch system. While many of these changes, such as the salad bar, local partnerships, and sustainability efforts, are welcomed, the general lack of communication from the administration regarding this issue has left students confused and frustrated. There is a “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQ) page about lunches on the ICSD website, but this link was not shared with students, and this FAQ does not address any of the primary student concerns, such as new nutritional standards, portion sizes, and the removal of cookies and other “à la carte” snacks. When students are left in the dark about the food being served to them, it creates unnecessary anger towards a high school cafeteria that is, in reality, executing a number of incredible initiatives. Increased communication would not only alleviate stress and frustration, but it would also shed light on the many positive, impressive changes occurring here in the ICSD cafeterias.