Students praise lunches despite decreasing numbers

Wrangell High School opened a new salad bar for lunch Oct. 23 in the student commons.

The salad bar has been in the works for several months at the cafeteria after the school received a grant for the salad bar at the end of last year, and opens after last month's numbers from the food services program showed a steep decline between the number of lunches eaten this year and the number of lunches eaten at the same time last year. Most students said they enjoyed school lunches in general, even if they sometimes go outside the school for lunch instead of eating in.

"They do a good job between the budget and the guidelines that they have," said freshman Darren Shilts. Shilts eyed his lunchmates' food wistfully because – as a member of the Wolves wrestling team – he was trying to keep his weight class, and had no lunch.

Senior Michael Guggenbickler said that while his lunch, purchased from a downtown grocery store, was from outside, it boiled down to a matter of personal preference, not just for him, but for all of the students in the high school.

"We're teenagers," he said. "We just want to eat hamburgers and pizza all the time."

Other students said the quality of food was, in general, very good.

"I lived in Texas," said sophomore David Ellis. "The quality of food here is the best."

Students at Wrangell High, Stikine Middle and Evergreen Elementary singled out pizza as their favorite meal.

October might seem like a strange time to start up a new lunch program, since classes have already been in session for a couple months. However, food services manager Kim Wickman said that was by design.

"I didn't want to start the salad bar off the first few months," she said. "I wanted to make sure we had gotten everything else going first."

In addition, personnel changes have hampered the early implementation as new cooks learn to fit with the rhythm of the middle school kitchen, where meals are cooked each day, something students in the cafeteria picked up on.

"We have had different cooks each year, so each new person kind of puts their imprint on it," Guggenbickler said.

Wickman, an assistant cook in the kitchen since November 2012, agreed.

"I think (personnel changes) have a lot to do with it," she said. "The first person to run the kitchen ran a restaurant. She had a whole different idea for line cooking and batch cooking."

Wickman also invited Wrangell parents to the schools to find out what their pupils were eating, and said she'd listen to criticism, particularly if it was constructive.

"I think kids should bring their parents," she said. "I can't invite the entire town up to eat, I would love to, but parents should know what their children are eating. If their kid really, really dislikes our fishburgers, and we get enough kids saying that, we'll take it off the menu. I don't want to serve kids something they hate."

Middle school students said they enjoyed the salad bar.

"I think the salad bar is a good idea," said seventh grader Isaac Mingming. "It'll help kids eat healthy."

Other students were very particular about the items they disliked, like eighth grader River Guggenbickler, who brought his lunch from home.

School officials envision the salad bar as an entrée to other kinds of buffet-bar style foods, like a taco bar, or possibly an oatmeal bar, Wickman said.

Students will soon have the opportunity to address their concerns to officials directly. The system has also launched a survey of all students and their opinions about the lunch program. As of publication deadline on Tuesday evening, they had surveyed the middle school, and planned to expand the survey to the elementary and high schools, said Superintendent Rich Rhodes.

Results of the survey will be reported at the next school board meeting, Rhodes added.