Cafeteria Workers serve students in the Outtakes line

When lunch time finally comes in the seemingly endless first hours of school, students quickly hurry to the cafeteria, debating on what today’s lunch will consist of. With the seven different lines available, the options seem endless. However, an entirely different option is bringing lunch from home, which seems to be more common these days.

Taking a trip to one of the more popular lines, “Outtakes,” is normally part of the average student’s lunch period due to the mass amounts of snack foods and drinks available. Mostly holding foods such as cookies and chips, it doesn’t seem to be the healthiest option of the lines, even though few do take the plunge and add a healthy salad or wrap to their meal. If the right foods are chosen from Outtakes, it could be a reasonably healthy every day lunch.

Another line that seems to be growing among the cafeteria is “Crust and stuff.” It’s greasy pizza and fries are any teenagers dream meal. The amount of calories is over the top for this line, whether there are healthy alternatives or not. It’s rare that a student comes to a line full of greasy food and also gets apples or a small salad, but the option is available in almost every one of the lines in the cafeteria.

The food in the lunchroom may be diverse and inexpensive, but that doesn’t stop students from packing their own lunch from home. Each day, more and more brown paper bags are appearing throughout the lunchroom. Some may be clueless as to why students would bring their own lunch instead of simply buying one for a few dollars, but packed lunches can be one the resourceful to avoid spending money and eating greasy foods.

Packed lunch or not, the smart choice is to choose something healthy instead of venturing off to Outtakes and buying two cookies for a dollar. It all depends on opinion when it comes to lunch time, but if students have learned anything in health class, they’ll know to stay away from lines such as “Crust and Stuff,” and choose them only once in a while to maintain a healthy balance of foods. So next time lunch seems to be a difficult decision, remember to evaluate every option and choose wisely.