By Darian Susic
A cookie, burger, and water totaling $7.75. Currently, the amount students have to pay for a small school lunch is preposterous. Just getting a burger and water costs $6.25 and if a student got this minimal meal every day of the week that would total $31.25. This is why I propose that school lunches should be sponsored by Chick-Fil-A.
You may be asking why Chick-Fil-A but according to a study by NBC News Chicago, Chick-Fil-A was voted the number one fast-food chain in Illinois. Hunter Masen”,” a Batavia freshman who gets school lunch three times a week”,” was asked the question that if lunch was provided by Chick-Fil-A would he get it more often, he said, “Yes, every day.”He continued to say,” That he would go back for seconds”. A basic Chick-Fil-A sandwich only costs $4.15 and a meal costs $7.39. I know this is more than the $6.25 I had previously mentioned but you are getting so much more food and higher quality for only a little more than a dollar upcharge. Adding a drink to your meal at school can cost up to $2.75 which is horrible as students need something to drink with their meals. You could say that they could fill their water bottle but there are no fountains in the lunchroom.
Essentially there would be a Chick-Fil-A restaurant right in our cafeteria. Students’ orders would be made fresh as if in a real restaurant. Workers would be paid by Chick-Fil-A as if they were regular Chick-Fil-A employees. They would be stationed where the lunch is currently given out. Profits would then be split between Chick-Fil-A management and school management.
Current school lunches are very bland and don’t provide students with the energy to go throughout the day. Some school lunch options provided are more healthy but students have to wait so long that it is not worth getting them. The lines to get items that you can customize, like salads or stir fry, are usually extremely long and don’t give students enough time to eat. If a student was to get a warm item like a burger by the time they actually pay for that item it will already be cold, as they had to wait in the long checkout line in order to get it.
If food were to be provided by Chick-Fil-A then students could go right to what sandwich they want and pay there directly because they wouldn’t need to purchase items elsewhere. This is because if they want fries or a drink they would just purchase it with their meal like in the restaurant. This would, in turn, give students more time to eat during lunch so they don’t need to eat super fast, which can cause many health problems. It would also give students more time to socialize with their peers, which is needed during a hectic school day.
Currently, school lunch is provided by a company called Quest Food Management Services Inc, and there are a few name-brand options. Currently, students have options including salads, burgers, and pizza. These items are just sitting out all day under heaters to keep them warm, and the salad ingredients just sit in the kitchen waiting to be served. If lunch was to be provided by a vendor like Chick-Fil-A when ordering food it would be like ordering from the restaurant itself.
The costs to the school may go up as Chick-Fil-A will be a more expensive option than a mass vendor, but the quality of food will drastically improve. Students will also pay more if they get a full meal, which in turn would equal the increase in which the school is in charge. In the end, the benefits of this expenditure would far outweigh the negatives.