At Jones College Prep there are a variety of lunches that are liked and disliked, but the quality and taste of the food is a concern among the student population.

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has guidelines for required nutritional value in school lunches, but the flavor consequences of enforcing “healthier” options impacts the overall quality for students.

“Most of the lunches are kind of flavorless,” said Richard Caccavale ‘23. “The main issue is the lunch has to meet certain nutrition restrictions by order of CPS.”

According to the CPS school lunch guidelines, all grain items served must be whole grain rich, which doesn’t sit well with many students.

“The whole grain makes some things taste pretty weird,” said Caccavale. “I just don’t like the taste of it.”

Other students voiced similar opinions over the school provided lunches.

“It lacks flavor,” said Nishchay Kapatral ‘22. “It’s usually pretty cold and there isn’t enough food most of the time.”

An especially unpopular school meal among students is fried rice containing carrot pieces and egg.

“The rice is weirdly sweet and grainy,” said Thomas Czerwein ‘22. “The green beans that go with it are extremely soft and squishy, and the bread tastes bitter.”

Even the lunches that are more popular among students have serious criticisms.

“The burger is dry. I think the fault mainly falls on the bun, but the patty could definitely use more moistness as well,” said Seth Stzechowski ‘22. “It tastes solid and compared to the other lunches it’s good, but the bar isn’t high.”

A prominent concern for many students is that the portions of food being provided isn’t enough.

“The portions are too small,” said Antonio Hernandez ‘22 concerning the pizza. “It’s an above average school lunch but it’s not that much food.”

Bobby Chavez ‘23 voiced a similar opinion about the school lunches.

“The food is ok, and my favorite is the pizza, but they do not give enough food for kids to eat,” said Chavez.

In spite of the shortcomings, there is hope for an improvement among the student body.

“My favorite meal is the chicken drumsticks, they’re really good,” said Noah Castells ‘23. “It would be great if they gave more food that has flavor and had some more options. I also think having more ripe fruit could be very beneficial because right now it’s very inconsistent.”

Improving the quality of ingredients was also brought up by Caccavale.

“Some improvements could be made if they spent a bit more money on higher quality ingredients and better tasting food,” said Caccavale.