Many of the students that attend Air Academy High School (AAHS) often complain about the school food looking and tasting bad while providing no nutrition value. Not only are they wrong when it comes to the nutrition provided, but many students fail to realize that AAHS has some of the best food when it comes to high schools nation wide.

Many students say the food either does not look good or does not provide any nutritional value.

“The school food doesn’t look great, but I’m not sure if it’s nutritional or not. I think what makes a meal nutritious is what it’s made out of. Now I wouldn’t know whether a meal is nutritional or not, but usually you can tell just by looking at certain meals,” senior Peter Patchen stated.

It is understandable to think that most kids do not understand proper nutrition when it comes to food, but has been shown that most school lunches (including AAHS) have beneficial nutrition value.

According to the Connecticut’s Official State Website, “The meal patterns require daily and weekly amounts of five food components for lunch (milk, fruits, vegetables, grains, and meat/meat alternates) and three food components for breakfast (milk, fruits, and grains)”.

Air Academy not only provides all of the basic requirements, but the school usually offers a variety of fruits and vegetables for students to take along with multiple beverages. Beverages such as milk, chocolate milk, apple juice, and sugar free drinks students can purchase along with their free meal.

Other high schools tend to have school food that either does not meet these requirements or fail on making an enjoyable meal.

“I would say my schools food is pretty bad. There’s not much variety except every week we have a test kitchen and they change the meal up for that week,” senior, Fountain Fort Carson Highschool, Colin Green shared.

While AAHS has food that is been seasoned and supplied with condiments, other schools may not have that same luxury.

“My school food is pretty mid. It isn’t necessarily bad, but it definitely isn’t good. They 100% need to provide seasoning. They should get the salt and pepper packets that fast food places have! If we got those, it would make the lunches so much better,” Green exclaimed.

AAHS offers meals with additional condiments such as mustard, ketchup, mayo, ranch, buffalo ranch, honey mustard, and barbeque while also serving seasoned food.

Many AAHS students take the school’s food for granted, expecting a 5 star Michelin meal when the food is not only provided for free, but has many options and customizations to it.

“I’d say the variety of the foods is amazing. They have burgers, pizza, chicken, etcetera. Not only that, but they also provide a bar that offers different fruits and vegetables for the students to take,” senior Hayden Bardett said.

AAHS offers a plethora of choice and availability when it comes to their free lunches. There are three lines, each offering something different and unique to the students.

It is clear how much AAHS students take their school lunches for granted. The meals are nutritious, free, and subjectively pretty tasty. Hopefully the overall mindset of students change to appreciate what all is given to them.