Imagine this: you woke up too late for breakfast, and you’ve gone through your first couple of classes just waiting for a scrumptious lunch. When you enter Malone, however, what you see is hard to pronounce and looks suspiciously like vegetables. So you grab a piece of bread and head out.

Unfortunately, this is a common event in the Middle School, and I’m here to figure out why.

Not all of the food is unpopular; teachers and students alike have their favorites. “Definitely the Hotdogs!” says 8th grader Aaron Liu. A long-time 8th-grade teacher who chose to remain nameless also has similar favorites. “Probably what the Middle Schoolers see, the chicken fingers, the hamburgers, hotdogs, and french fries,” he says. Even Malone’s Head Chef Jake Ihara has his favorites. “I like doing anything ethnic,” he says. “Indian food, Korean food, Japanese food . . . those are gonna be my favorites.”

Nonetheless, Middle Schoolers who have been at Westminster since Love Hall look back fondly on their Lower School lunches. 8th grader Aaron Liu has yet to fully adjust. “I think that it is better than it was last year,” he says. “But I liked the lunch in the Lower School before Covid better. But [they should have] more pasta. ” 8th grader Lauren Lockerman agrees with him.  “The Lunch was way better in the Lower School . . . I wish we could go back to that.” 

The teacher who-chooses-to-remain-nameless wonders whether the lunch is kid-friendly enough. “The food tastes good; they always have fresh options like the salad bar and the sandwiches are always available,” he says. “But the kid-friendliness of the food, I don’t think is what I would be wanting if I was a middle school student.”  

This brings up the question, should Malone change the menu to better cater to our Middle Schoolers?  8th-grade girls’ Grade Chair Catherine Zidow thinks they already have. “This year the food is so kid-friendly and approachable,” she says. “I haven’t had a single day where I think my 8th-grade self wouldn’t eat that.” 

In fact, Malone has made changes due to students’ being proactive and taking action, according to Ihara. “A 7th grader . . . talked to a bunch of her friends about what they would like to see for the Middle School [lunch],” he says. “We took some of her ideas and made some modifications to our menu.”

In order for any of these lunches to be prepared, each meal is planned for two months ahead, and around 700-1,000 pounds of meat need to be ordered for each day.  The chefs in Malone ensure the right amount of carbs, lean protein, vegetables, dairy, and starches.

While there will always be different opinions, the Middle School as a whole is very pleased with the food in Malone.