📢 UPDATE: Our Students Are Being Heard — And We're Just Getting Started

Thank you to everyone who has signed and shared our petition calling for expanded lunch options at River Islands High School. We have now received 231 signatures across our petition and community survey, and the response has gone beyond what we initially expected. Parents and students are talking about this issue, and the conversation is spreading throughout the RIHS student body. This is no longer just a handful of parents asking for change. What's happening now? We are moving into the next phase of this effort. We've reached out to RIHS student leadership/ASB to ask for their involvement. We are requesting that students have a formal voice in this conversation and that ASB consider conducting a student-wide survey about the current lunch program and what students would like to see changed. We are also working toward bringing parents, students, and community members together to form a small RIHS Lunch Advocacy Committee. The goal will be to work constructively with school and district leadership to develop realistic solutions. The concern is bigger than menu variety. One of the biggest concerns we are hearing from students and parents is the lunch line itself. RIHS currently has hundreds of students sharing a single lunch period. Students report spending a significant portion of that limited lunch period waiting in line, sometimes only to reach the front and discover that the food they wanted is already gone. This creates a frustrating situation: students may spend their lunch period waiting for food they don't want, or waiting so long that they don't have enough time to eat. A lunch program isn't serving students effectively if they can't reasonably access a meal during their allotted lunch period. We are open to solutions. Our goal is not to dictate exactly how Banta Unified must solve this problem. We want to work with the district to find solutions that are realistic, sustainable, and accessible to all students. Some possibilities parents and students have suggested include: Multiple lunch stations or serving lines Additional daily entrée choices A grill or sandwich/deli station Salad and fresh-food options Rotating specialty meals One or two approved food vendors/food trucks on campus to provide additional choices and help reduce cafeteria lines Exploring whether optional paid food choices could supplement the existing free meal program for families who are willing and able to purchase additional options Several parents have expressed that they would willingly pay for additional food options if that were one of the ways the district could expand choices. We recognize that any paid program or outside food vendor would need to comply with district, state, and federal requirements, and we are simply asking the district to explore what possibilities exist. Most importantly, students who rely on the free meal program should not be left with fewer choices or access to food. Any solution should continue to ensure that every student has access to a complete meal. Our request remains simple: RIHS students deserve a lunch program that provides enough variety, accessibility, and food to realistically serve the entire student body within the lunch period. Because RIHS is a closed campus and students cannot leave for lunch or have food delivered, the cafeteria is their only option during the school day. We aren't asking for individual staff members to be blamed or criticized. We are asking for the system to improve. We are also looking at the lunch programs offered by nearby high school districts, including Stockton, Tracy, and Manteca Unified, to demonstrate the range of options being provided to high school students in our own area. ❤️ Thank you for standing with our students. Every signature, share, conversation, and message helps demonstrate that this matters to our community. If you haven't signed yet, please consider signing and sharing this petition. Our students are speaking up. Parents are listening. Now we're working to make sure those voices reach the people who have the ability to make meaningful changes. 231 signatures so far. Let's keep going. #BetterLunchesForRIHS #RIHS #BantaUnified #StudentVoice