Why is it that I, a 15-year-old girl attending Tahoma High School, can go into the lunch room and get two slices of pizza, an Arizona tea and three cookies all for under $6, but I can’t go to the grocery store and get a healthy meal for even close to that.

At THS most kids steer away from the cafeteria style lunches provided and go straight to the student store. As Mia Brown put it, “Well the school food is disgusting.” She’s got a point. Who wants to eat soggy chicken nuggets and corn chips encrusted in fake “plastic like” nacho cheese?

“So Junk food is our only option,” Ari Selzler said.

As a vegetarian I feel there is a puzzle piece missing. Where are the vegetarian and vegan options? And our school could argue that they provide us with pre-made boxed salads. With yummy rock-hard croutons and calorie loaded dressing with fresh packaged-a-month-a-go carrots and tomatoes. I guess they could say that they don’t force us to eat unhealthy, and they just do what they can to make us happy. But do you give a 4 year old candy and ice cream every night for dinner just because they ask?

And trust me this is not a personal attack on Tahoma High School, I’ve been in the district since I was 5. But recently I’ve noticed how unhealthy the lunches are. I can even remember a time when the lunch ladies did anything besides heat up pre-cooked meals. Whatever happened to REAL meals? I’m not suggesting that we get some weird all vegan food for our school, but good decisions start in the youth. So if you’re teaching kids at 16 that it’s cheaper and tastes better to get a Gatorade, a giant Rice Crispy treat and a churro; then what are they going to teach their kids? And people are still having doubts on why 33 percent of children are obese? But the problem isn’t that the lunch ladies do what there told, it’s that our school isn’t teaching kids how to make healthy decisions for life.

Ivie Johnson

Tahoma High sophomore