When it comes to Chesterfield County, it’s not exactly the food you would want to eat for an entire school year. The food isn’t completely bad, but the menu is repetitive and tiresome. This year, it seems like more varieties of food are being added.

It looks like Chesterfield County is trying to escape from their monotonous menu of chicken and rice or cheese and pepperoni pizza. So far, we have gained new types of chicken, pizza, sandwiches, and pasta. You might not be a fan of the entire menu, but by adding new flavors, it makes school lunch more accessible to everyone. Trestin Hoover, however, dislikes the increased menu because he feels like this was a “desperate attempt to broaden the categor[ies]” but it just “made it worse.”

Our school’s food calendar for breakfast and lunch are open to the public. If the menu is studied, it shows a lack of variety in terms of what is served on what day. Pizza is served just about every Friday. As someone who doesn’t like pizza, it makes food less accessible to me and possibly more, every Friday. The County must randomize their menu because it’s not fair to those who don’t like all the food at Manchester. This can lead to someone not enjoying the food enough to neglect eating lunch for a week or longer.

You don’t need a diverse palate to be able to eat the food, but you might need to rip out your eyes so you don’t have to see how some of the food looks. To be honest, I really do like some of the things offered. However, there is a lot that goes wrong. A piece of bread, cheese, and ham isn’t appetizing, and is rather boring and bleak. In my opinion, the taste of steak nuggets is near impossible to find appealing. Then, there’s the rotini pasta and marinara. If you don’t like super watered down sauces this isn’t for you. The meatballs don’t make up for the lack of texture, and the marinara is more like tomato juice. Then there’s a cheese steak sub that tastes like there’s no seasoning and only makes the bread soggy.

I do like my fair share of this school’s food, but not everything is for everyone. The County should definitely try harder towards making food that kids will actually like in order to allow more children palatable and nutritious options to help them get through the school day.