At the beginning of each school year, Mounds View undergoes a variety of changes. For many students, a prominent feature that grasps their attention is lunch. This year, the cafeteria has made several shifts by adding new foods and changing the organization of lunch lines. 

As many students have noticed, while many of the menu options have remained the same, there have been some newly introduced foods. Some of these include beef and lentil sambusas, Woodles and chicken and chickpeas tikka masala. There are also a variety of reasons why these foods have been introduced. “We have been making updates to our menu to include more foods that are locally grown and produced, offer a variety of options to help meet more student dietary preferences and offer foods that are representative of our district community,” said Heather Schmidt, the district’s Nutrition Services Manager. 

Some students have enjoyed the addition of new foods. “I’ve always loved chicken tikka masala, so I’m glad that I can now eat it at school,” said senior Gabby Haake. Others also noted how changing up the menu is more interesting than keeping the same dishes every week. “It just seems kind of like a new refresher to the things we’ve been getting,” said freshman Christian Yu.

More recent changes to the cafeteria have included changing the organization of the line. The major change has been moving the milk crates to the end of the line and getting rid of the separate stations where students would normally get their sides. “An outside consultant came in and kind of analyzed the efficiency of how streamlined our lunch lines were able to go; we had the fruits and vegetables off to the side, and there was kind of congestion there. It was just to make it a little more smoother,” said Trisha Kasen, a nutrition services worker.

While changing the lines had the intention of making them quicker and more efficient, students have mixed feelings about whether they have been successful in doing so. “It holds up the line a lot. Like, if someone’s taking a long time to get every single thing, the people in the back get super cramped,” said senior Bria Mills. On the other hand, others believe that the line has become more efficient with the changes. “It’s not as traffic jammed at the front… it’s more spread out,” said junior Emery Klein.

Looking to the future, the cafeteria’s food will continue to change as the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) rules evolve. “We have strict rules and regulations to follow from the USDA and Minnesota Department of Education,” said Schmidt. For example, this year, new limits on the amount of added sugar in cereals, yogurts, and milk were put in place, which restricts what products can be provided to students. 

With the continued changes to the cafeteria, only time will tell what effects it will have on the Mounds View students that eat school lunches every day. While most enjoy the various new foods to try, students have mixed feelings about the new organization of the lunch lines. Even with the uncertainty about the effects of the changes, what remains certain is that lunch at Mounds View will keep evolving as time passes.