Montera is serving a new lunch option: Chicken caesar salad.
Montera Middle School has a new lunch option, but I feel like there’s not enough of it. The new lunch choice is a chicken caesar salad in a cardboard bowl. It seems to be popular among the sixth graders because when it’s time for the seventh and eighth graders to go to lunch there’s barely any left.
I interviewed a former Montera student about the school lunches when they attended. Alumni S.B states he went to middle school in 2017-2019. He is currently attending college. His hobbies include photography and birding. While in middle school he was provided with: boxed salads, wings, pizza, PB & Js, and chicken & waffles for lunch. He confirmed lunch was served in the M.U.R. When S.B was asked if the lunch menus changed throughout the school year he confirmed that they didn’t change and were consistent unlike the breakfast. about the breakfast, S.B stated “there was never one consistent item, it kept changing.”. During S.B’s tenure the school was constantly trying new breakfast items.
When new items were introduced, they were typically the only option or one of two. S.B felt it was a negative experience because he didn’t have any choice in what he ate. He also stated that he felt the quality was adequate. Overall S.B didn’t have a positive experience with the rotating breakfast menu.
S.B commented he was served boxed salads for lunch and he did not enjoy them. He states “the chicken was undercooked and lacked flavor.”. It was a generic salad. When asked if S.B was served a chicken caesar salad he said “no.”. He also experienced the popular food would run out quickly. If he stayed to talk with a teacher the popular food would be gone by the time he got to the M.U.R. It seems that the old boxed chicken salad was repurposed into a new chicken caesar salad in a bowl. In conclusion, the repurposing increased the popularity of this item and the cafeteria continues to short change students on popular food.