Currently in Lake Washington School District, the school lunch is supplied by a French based company called Sodexo. The school lunch offered is severely lacking in quality and nutritional value. The school should provide all students with nutritious, healthy and tasty food. The school should also provide all students with food that is not a risk to the health and safety of the students. 

We request that Lake Washington School District provides the student population with higher quality school lunch that legally meets the standards listed above. 

Signing this petition advocates for the positive changes we wish to see in the school lunch provided to students daily.  

To quote Sodexo’s website, under Purpose-Driven Food Services for Schools, “We believe that school meals serve more than food — they serve a purpose. And that purpose is nourishing students’ health and development while inspiring their imaginations and fueling achievement.” (Sodexo - Food Services for K-12 Schools). There is nothing imaginative, or inspiring about a greasy slice of pizza, or a dry burger with no flavor. The same goes for the lack of quality in the fruits and vegetables served every day. Lettuce and carrots, going stale, and apples and oranges that have been sitting bunched together soaked for hours on end. This causes many of the fruits to go bad, sometimes being rotten when we receive them.

Similar to how the milk provided is often spoiling, being chunky and slimy when students drink them. And this has been a reoccurring issue for multiple years. When students drink milk or eat food that is going bad and on the verge of being expired, it risks their own health. Now, under Food Your Students Will Love, Sodexo states, “Working together, we transform school food programs into dynamic meal opportunities that students look forward to. Leveraging our proven experience in innovative food services for K-12 schools, we develop thoughtful menus built on USDA standards and deep research into age-specific taste preferences. This ensures every student finds what they’re looking for and gets the nutrition they need to succeed. To keep them coming back for more (and your reimbursement levels high), our talented chefs regularly use fresh, local ingredients and showcase exciting global flavors to enhance food diversity as we nurture curiosity and encourage exploration for students throughout your learning community.” (Sodexo - Food Services for K-12 Schools). What is there to look forward to? Other than the fact that I will get to eat, the food itself, its quality and taste has no enticing factor. Diversity, “global flavors”, and variety in the choices are limited.

Additionally, the vegetarian options provided are very limited. Most vegetarian students have to bring food from home because of the lacking choices they have from the school lunch menu. And these options get taken up quickly for those that do eat the food from school and these vegetarian choices running out by the time some students get to the front. And the only curiosity present is between how long it will take to get through the lunch line, whether or not there will be a new fruit, or if the food is fresh, or burnt. And this is not the fault of the employees that serve the food. It yet again falls on Sodexo. On the Lake Washington School District website, on the page for Nutrition Services under "About Sodexo", it says that Sodexo serves "the U.S., Canada and Mexico with 120,000 employees." Despite this, there are only one or two Sodexo employees working the lunch service in schools. This causes them to be rushed in their work in this fast paced, stressful environment. With hundreds of students getting lunch every day, not wanting to wait in line for too long, employees will end up making unintentional mistakes all because Sodexo and the district cannot provide more employees to assist with this issue, even if they claim they have so many across North America. 

Student Testimonies: 

"The milk tasted weird and left a bad aftertaste." - 9th Grade Rachel Ren

"I used to eat school lunch but I noticed a decrease in quality in these past two years." - Anonymous 

"i prefer food from home, and im vegetarian so there not a lot of options for me in terms of lunch" - Anonymous

"I used to eat school lunch, but it was overpriced, not filling enough, and didn't taste good." - Anonymous 

Sources:

https://us.sodexo.com/industry/k12-schools/food-services​

https://www.lwsd.org/students-families/families/breakfast-lunch-menus