The MacArthur cafeteria needs a salad bar

A salad bar would provide fresher, better food to MacArthur students. And Spurgeon Intermediate is already doing it!

There are lots of food choices in the world; however, students are captive to the cafeteria when at school.  To that end, MacArthur should get better food!  It is true that the cafeteria menu does change every day, and many of the options are fine, but too many of the lunch options are not good.  Regularly, there are food items that seem to not be fully reheated, and there is often ice in both the milk and juice drinks.  

MacArthur should have better food: food that is prepared fresh.  Spurgeon Intermediate, another site in the Santa Ana Unified School District, recently just got a salad bar.  Why can’t we?  Or something else that is better?!  

As posted in a YouTube video, students who use Spurgeon’s  salad bar receive four fresh items.  Their first item is one cup of mixed vegetables.  The second item is fruit.  Third comes protein – two scoops like cold cuts and eggs, which is two ounces of proteins.  And lastly, they have to get two scoops of grains.  What they have in the salad bar is the actual lettuce salad, tomatoes, cucumber, grapes, watermelon, cheese, pasta, croutons and a lot more food.

At MacArthur, the fruits and vegetables are good!  They generally seem fresh and are usually the best part of the cafeteria.  It’s the entrees that are a problem.  Too many foods are preheated and not even really cooked.  Some foods are greasy and oily.  The drinks should be cold, which they are, but sometimes the chocolate and white regular milk comes with chunks of ice, and sometimes the whole thing would be ice.  Also the juices, they are half the size of the milk.  They should serve them the same size as the chocolate and white milk.  

On the other hand, it is understandable why we the cafeteria may be limited.  It would take too much time to serve thousands of students fresh made food.  The cost of food would be considerable, and fresh-made entrees may require additional personnel.  For what MacArthur currently gets, the cafeteria workers work hard to make sure every student gets breakfast or a snack at nutrition, and a hot lunch.  

The solution seems to be clear, though.   A salad bar!  If another school in the district is receiving fresh food for lunch, why isn’t MacArthur?  

Watch the video on Spurgeon’s salad bar below: