High school senior: School lunches not filling

I am a senior at Eureka High School. I am writing to you to present an issue with the school lunch program and encourage the community and paper to recognize this problem. There have been many times when students have felt that they are not getting enough to eat and it is causing many students to still be hungry throughout the school day.

The school lunches are not fulfilling the required calorie count for high school students and even giving the same amount of food for all the students in the Eureka City Schools District, from elementary school to high school. There are some days when the portion sizes are even smaller than what is being listed on the school lunch website. One common example is when the school has rice and chicken which typically consists of a couple spoonfuls of rice and four small pieces of chicken which only consists of 352 calories for one meal, according to the Eureka High School lunch menu website. The approximate amount of calories should be 833 per meal, according to the FDA.

Of the 151 students that participated in a survey asking about the school lunch, 80 students said they eat school lunch regularly and 62.5% of these students said the school lunch was not filling enough for them. Approximately 91.3% of the same 80 students also would eat more food if it were offered from the school. These numbers have shown there is a need and want for larger portions in our local high schools and should be addressed since so many students benefit from these programs. — Kailynn Thompson, Eureka