Aw, yuck! Kids grade lunchroom menus

By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
August 22, 2001

Leave it to kids and they’d likely want cupcakes, milkshakes and pizza for lunch every day. We checked with a few pint-size and teen food critics to see how their school lunches rate. “I am very excited ’cause it’s my first time ever to eat lunch at school.”

Meredith Mortimer, 6, first grade, North Park “I wish they’d serve good food–stuff that wasn’t greasy. They always serve cheeseburgers and French fries. They need more variety.”

Seth Neill, 13, eighth grade
Northwest Side

“School food is kind of gross. It’s just all sticky or soggy. I’d rather eat at McDonald’s.”

Ryan Maniaci, 15, sophomore
Northwest Side

“They re-cook things. For the cheese on the nachos, they’ll pour milk into it, and the cheese will be two different colors. It’s just sick! There’s always a thick skin on top of the cheese.”

Faiyaz Noorani, 14, freshman
Rogers Park

“The food is sometimes good, sometimes bad. I eat it anyway. They give us a lot of the same food–I don’t like leftovers. But the good part is that the food is warm. I’d like it if they served something different every day, but they don’t. The worst thing they serve is fish, but I just don’t like any kind of fish.”

Abby Fortunato, 11, sixth grade
Southwest Side

“I like the fish sticks and French fries. And the milk is good, too.”

Lance Fortunato, 7, second grade
Southwest Side

“The food is all right. They served us pizza, ravioli, tacos and stuff like that. The tacos taste good, but I don’t like the burritos.”

(More about school lunches here.)