As Jacob Peters, a senior, got his hot lunch from the servers and sat down, he wondered what was really going into his lunch.  “The food here is just pre packaged and heated up so that it is not cold when we eat it.  They don’t taste that great and don’t seem to have any great nutritional value.”  Many students of Palatine High School believe the same exact thing that he does.

The school lunches at Palatine High School are actually very healthy since they are wholesome by national food regulations.  The national food regulations don’t actually make the food though.  Three cooks and one baker make the food that is being served.

“Everything is [from] scratch; we got peppers, mushrooms, cauliflower, fresh spinach.”  Chatty Azzaretto, a cook, said.  “So in your soups and stuff, you got all fresh vegetables.”

Almost everything has fresh ingredients in it.  All of the cups of vegetables are fresh.  The tomatoes, onions, and lettuce are cut right before it they’re served.

Some students may wonder how nachos can be healthy.  “There are whole grain corn chips.” Debbie Madaj said.  “The cheese sauce is a homemade cheese sauce.  Some people may think that it is not a nutritional meal but it really is.”

Another general idea that most students have is that the food is made somewhere not at PHS and just heated up to look good.  This is not true, though, since 95 percent of the food that is served is made from scratch at PHS.

“We don’t prepackage anything here.” Jill Evans, a cook, said.  “We put together everything.  Nothing really comes in and goes out unless we put our own preparation in it.”

Some things that the students might not consider is what happens to the leftover food.  Do they throw it out or freeze it? Some food items can be kept while others can’t.

After the first couple weeks of school there becomes a pattern in how many students eat which foods.  “We try to make the exact amount.”  Evans said.  “There is very little waste.”

The food is the freshest that they can make it, explained Susan Kurpiel.  If the students like it, they are free to let the cooks know.  “We aren’t just throwing stuff at them.”  Kurpiel said. “We actually do care.”

“We’re busy from the second we come here to the second we leave.” Evans said.  “We all have kids that went through the district, so we want [the students ] to have good food.”