It’s almost the end of class, right before lunch. For the past two periods, you’ve been struggling to keep your stomach from growling, but with the lack of breakfast– it’s inevitable. The clock is ticking until finally, your teacher dismisses you as it hits 11:36 a.m. You get out of class but as you approach the cafeteria, so close to that plain lunch food, you see a mob of people running to the line.
Then you remember– they’re giving pupusas.

School lunch food has been a debatable topic amongst the students at Middle College High School. There is an extensive selection of lunch items to choose from, ranging from the savory chicken tamales to the sweet and tangy teriyaki chicken and fried rice. But which option is the most popular?

As previously mentioned, opinions surrounding school lunch foods are divided since the opinions on it can be either great or terrible. Some dishes can be so delicious that you might ask your classmates for seconds, savoring every bite of it, while other lunches might be so unpleasant that you won’t want to eat them again.

Senior Karla Godinez-Huerta gives her opinion on the school lunch food.

“They’re good when you’re hungry but of course, nothing compares to actual homemade food and I feel like that’s why people don’t appreciate school lunch food, because they’re so used to homemade or junk food that the flavor doesn’t taste right. It can also be because school lunches are more focused on giving us protein than the taste of it,” Godinez-Huerta said.

The article “Goodbye hotdogs, hello vegan masala: California’s school lunches are going gourmet” by Carolyn Jones, goes into detail about how $15 billion of funding was given to state and federal funding, allowing schools to push away junk food for healthier options. Though these healthier options may not be as popular among students, they are more nutritious and important to promote good health.

“School districts are ditching the old standbys– frozen pizza and chicken nuggets — in favor of organic salads, free-range grilled chicken, vegan chana masala, chilaquiles and other treats,” Jones said.

In a survey conducted among the students of MCHS, I asked them to choose their favorite school lunch item from a list of 11 common school lunches; tamales, orange chicken and rice, pupusas, hotdogs, spicy chicken sandwich, hamburger, grilled cheese sandwich, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chicken dumplings, Galaxy pizza and beans and rice.

Seniors, Godinez-Huerta and Christopher Garcia share their predictions on what they believe will be the most popular school lunch food.

“Pupusas because I always see people running to get them, yeah the lines are always full for that lunch,” Godinez-Huerta said.

“I would think pupusas are the most popular– out of all the lunches offered here, it is one of the best,” Garica said.

Now, for the reveal, in third place is a famous dish which is a combination of spices and flavors from China– tangy, sweet, and spicy– while the other half of the dish has been eaten all around the world. This dish would be orange chicken and rice.

In second place is a dish that dates back 2,000 years, made by the Pipil indigenous tribe in El Salvador. It contains cheese and cornmeal and is known as the delicious pupusas.

In first place is a food that is an unexpected, yet a delightful one – the spicy chicken sandwich. The spicy chicken sandwich has an interesting history which can be traced back to Nashville, Tennessee in 1930. However, it wasn’t until the early 2000s that the full sandwich was introduced, which has since become a popular choice among food lovers.