Today’s the day I get to divulge most conspicuously about my opinion about the most heated topic at school. I’ll give you three guesses as to what it is.

Don’t worry, I can’t hold it in me: It’s the cafeteria food. I can just imagine the masses of people hollering for seconds during lunch.

I have lived in the district for nine years, and the food has been less than adequate. Okay, let me stop sugarcoating.

Eating our cafeteria food is as bad as waking up and getting ready for school only to find out there is late arrival.

Four out of five days the food is either cold or stale, and when it isn’t, it  just doesn’t taste like it should. If that’s not enough, they are attempting to make everything “healthier.”

Why is healthier in quotes? Ahh, such perception.

Healthier is in quotes because the school’s idea of healthy is beyond questionable. They give us pizza on wheat bread. Um, no. If healthy is what the school is looking for, then offer fresh fruits and vegetables (I personally love steamed broccoli, but I haven’t seen much of it). Don’t kill a pizza.

It’s not only the pizza; it’s other small things: wheat bread on sandwiches, not having condiments at the time of creating the meal, or even all of the chips becoming baked. I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I popped out into the world, I came with a bag of hot Cheetos in my hand, and the baked brand does not hit the spot. It’s not even in the same vicinity of regular hot Cheetos.

I agree that it’s very unhealthy (I have read the back), but I also believe that it should be the students’ choice whether or not they should make healthier choices. It’s unfair to those who don’t go crazy and eat two bags every day.

On that note, I had the opportunity to talk to Joshua Wenger, food service director of Aramark, the school’s catering company. He rationalized the changes by saying, “childhood obesity continues to the rise, and we feel it’s important to offer you guys a variety of healthier food options.”

I kept thinking, “how is it an alternative choice if one of the choices is completely omitted?” If only I had asked that. I probably would have gotten some corporate answer that included guidelines, state laws, and at least mentioning “healthy foods” six times. Give or take.

I repeat, let us decide. High school is all about teaching teenagers to make adult decisions so when we go out into the real world we can live without the dependency of an administrator. And taking away food we like is not teaching us anything; it’s only adding to the bad habits thus creating a rebellion. Think of it this way: taking our foods away–or using wheat bread–is only sweeping our bad habits under the rug. Those bad habits will only pile up.

Yes I know, I just got fortune cookie on you.

If it’s healthy the Board wants then they should take the initiative to go 100 percent. Instead of slapping a piece of meat on wheat bread and calling it a healthy meal, offer us grilled chicken, or organically grown food (good for the environment too).  Instead of frying everything, maybe boiling it is a better alternative. Putting something on wheat bread does not differ from using white bread. Grant it, wheat has less carbs, but that’s one small area in the food pyramid. There is so much more the school is neglecting that could offer us a proper meal.

And the funny part is one year olds who eat maybe two bites of their food are eating better than all of us. According to Niles West News adviser, Evelyn Lauer, the kids who attend the school’s daycare, Children’s Learning World, eat all organic all the time. Snacks and milk included. Organic Life, a local company, caters the daycare’s lunches. Lauer says her son eats all-organic meals such as pan-roasted, free-range chicken breast with fresh tomato sauces and buffalo mozzarella and chipotle-kissed grass-fed beef enchiladas with black beans and rice.

Is your mouth watering yet?

If District 219 plans to switch catering companies, maybe it’s time to make a drastic change and go organic. If us students create a united front to not put up with unhealthy food, we can really make a difference.

Now don’t think that I’m contradicting myself: I want the improvements for meals, but I’m not saying the school should take away the vending machines–far from it. It’s important for students to have the option of splurging on candy or chips–the regular kind, not the baked imitations–once in a while.

If the goal is to provide us a well-rounded, nutritious meal, then it doesn’t make sense to go halfway. We deserve better.