Students Launch Campaign To Fix 'Disgusting' Chicago Public School Lunches

By Kate Shepherd in News on Nov 30, 2015 9:44PM



The School Lunch Project

Apparently the school lunches at Chicago Public Schools are "disgusting." They're so unappetizing that some students at Roosevelt High School have launched "The School Lunch Project: Culinary Denial" and a petition on MoveOn.org to improve the lunches.

Shirley Hernandez is one of the honors civics students at Roosevelt behind the project, according to WBEZ. The food, which is typically pizza, burgers or chicken patties, is unhealthy, overly processed and full of brown lettuce and soggy broccoli.

"We want bigger portions, more nutritious food and [food] partly handmade from scratch," Hernandez told WBEZ. "It's a human right to have decent food, not the lowest quality of food."

CPS made every meal in almost every CPS lunchroom free for all students about two years ago, but that hasn't improved students' opinions of the food from caterer Aramark. The School Lunch Project blames Aramark for the bad lunches on their site:

Before privatization of lunch, our school cafeteria served the community at large and turned a profit for the school. We learned that Aramark is a company with a laundry list of corruption and scandals a mile long. They may not know how to keep us happy, but they certainly keep their investors happy.

If CPS and Aramark don't address the issues with the food, the students are asking for permission to eat at home or elsewhere outside of school.

CPS and Aramark told WBEZ that they will look into the students' complaints.