Like tens of thousands of teens eating school lunch in their high school cafeterias nationwide, Nina Gonzalez found the food served at her school to be unappealing, unhealthy and unappetizing. Nina didn’t gripe or complain about it. Instead, she set out to change it.
First, she got input from the lunch ladies. Then she researched the Child Nutrition Act, learned what other schools did to incorporate more fruits and veggies into their menus, and paid a visit to the county nutrition director. Then Nina, who is an athlete and a vegetarian, invited her buddies over and ran a taste-test of vegetarian items offered by school-food vendors. Their favorite dish: a sampling of pita bread, a cheese stick, hummus, vegetables and fruit. Stafford High School in Virginia, which Nina attends, continues to serve that today, serves a meatless entree once a week, offers fruits and veggies and more healthy options on the menu, and stocks its salad and potato bars with much more appealing fare. The line for those bars, Gonzalez told the Washington Post, “is always packed.”
Improvements at Stafford High have taken root throughout the entire school system. “It’s a little bit,” said Gonzalez, who is now a senior, “but it’s a start.”
Stafford High School senior Nina Gonzalez revolutionized her school lunch. (Photo by CHRIS QUAY, Washington Post)
