Every single school day, Mission San Jose High School students line up for lunch with the same feeling: disappointment. Our cafeteria meals are consistently dry, bland, repetitive, and uninspired, offering little variety and even less excitement. Students are left scrambling to finish meals that feel more like an obligation than nourishment—such as the dry, overcooked veggie nuggets that have become a symbol of how low our lunch standards have fallen.

What makes this issue especially frustrating is that other schools in the Fremont Unified School District are clearly capable of receiving far better meals.

At Irvington High School, students enjoy chicken sliders with mac and cheese layered between sriracha-honey patties, crispy chicken and waffles, and onion ring western burgers—meals that are flavorful, filling, and thoughtfully prepared.
At Newark Memorial High School, students are served burrito bowls with customizable ingredients.
At American High School, lunches include cheesy pesto pasta with chicken, offering comfort food that actually tastes like it was made with care.

Meanwhile, Mission San Jose students are expected to accept the bare minimum.

Lunch is not just a break in the day—it is often the only substantial meal many students eat between early-morning classes, after-school sports, clubs, and long commutes home. Students cannot perform at their best academically or physically when their meals are consistently unappetizing and nutritionally questionable.

We are not asking for luxury.
We are asking for equity, variety, flavor, and effort.

Mission San Jose High School is known for its academic rigor and student excellence. Our lunches should reflect that same standard. We urge the administration and district to re-evaluate the lunch offerings at MSJHS, take inspiration from neighboring schools, and provide meals that students actually want to eat.

Our students deserve better than dry nuggets.
Our school deserves better than being left behind.