This article is a follow-up of a previous article on SHS lunches. Read the original story here.

In late October, seniors Karoan Ocasio-Vaquez and Bryan Terry Jr. organized a student-led petition to advocate for changes in the school’s a-la-carte lunch provider, Provisions On Demand (POD). Students were unsatisfied with the menu options provided by the POD, and expressed concerns over the small serving sizes. Furthermore, the POD’s narrow menu choices did not accommodate students with dietary restrictions. 

These concerns were brought to the attention of the school’s administration last month. Students are eager to see what improvements will be made to their lunches. Tim Kenney, principal, has begun the process of working with the school’s Director of Food Services to set changes into motion. Due to Aramark company policy, the directors of food services are unable to be quoted in a published newspaper. 

“I really don’t know if they hear the majority of the students, actually it is surprising when we had meetings with Mr. Kenney and the lunch directors, and they weren’t even aware of some of the concerns we were bringing up,” Terry Jr. said.

Renovations to the POD are currently in progress. A new addition will be added to hold more food for students.

“We are actually getting another piece put on the POD so that we can have more hot food offered, and the obstacle we have right now is supply chain,” Kenney said. “We’re just waiting for that piece of equipment to show up, and when it does we’ll start using it right away.”

Expanding the POD will ensure that students can still get a good meal despite long lines, which was one of the biggest goals of Ocasio-Vaquez’s petition. 

“I wanted to see there be more variety alongside more quantity of food, because I found that even though people were getting meals, not every student was receiving the meal they wanted,” Ocasio-Vaquez said.

The POD now serves breakfast boxes with fruits, vegetables and gluten-free items. There are also vegetarian options on the menu. However, as of December 10, vegetarian meals aren’t labeled as such, which is something students would like clarified. 

“I think there are more vegetarian options but they still don’t really label them as vegetarian, so I’m not really sure, and we did talk about that too and that’s something they still haven’t done yet,” Terry Jr. said.

Some changes, like increasing portion sizes or adjusting prices, may not be implemented at the POD. This is because lunches must meet state and federal nutritional standards that include limits on calorie content and pricing. Getting two free meals or larger portion sizes would not be in accordance with these guidelines. 

Kenney is pleased with the response to student concerns from the school’s food services, and he hopes to continue this improvement as more resources become available. On December 15th, Kenney sent out a school-wide survey to students regarding the changes to the POD. The survey asked for student suggestions and will be used to continue improvements to the POD. 

“I’ve just been visiting the POD on an every-other-day basis to see what the offers look like and talking with students about their experience, and they’ve been seeing noticeable improvements,” Kenney said.

Ripples conducted an informal survey of 30 students in the lunch line and students who were eating POD food. The survey revealed that there is still dissatisfaction with POD food. The students were asked if they felt that the POD food had improved since the start of the year; 21 students responded with “no” and nine students responded with “yes.”

Even though the majority of students in this survey felt that the food quality had remained relatively the same, the survey does not indicate that changes have not been made. Some students, like Terry Jr, have noticed some changes, but not enough improvements to change their opinion of the POD.

“Fruits and veggies were added on the sides for free, which is really good, because now there is more to eat during lunch,” Terry Jr. said. “But the quality of the food isn’t really always up to where I feel it should be.”

Terry Jr. acknowledges that there are difficulties in keeping the food fresh, as the cafeteria is closed for construction, meaning that food has to be prepared beforehand and delivered to the POD during lunch.

“There’s no kitchen in the arts building, so they prepare the food first and they deliver it here to give out to the students,” Terry Jr. said. “So I do try to keep that in mind when I think of the quality of [the food], I know it’s not really as fresh or as good as I would have hoped.”

Terry Jr. and Ocasio-Vasquez will continue to communicate with the administration to ensure that they receive student feedback about school lunch. 

“Going forward, we are going to have meetings… for the rest of the year,” Terry Jr. said. “Just to keep giving them updates, and informing them of the state of the lunch, if [we’re] liking it or not liking it, or getting huge problems like we had before again. I think definitely moving on, making sure students’ voices are being heard as best as we can.”