“I literally wish I could order it,” junior Brady Kass told me this past summer— during the three month stretch of no cafeteria food. And while I’ve always loved the beef and broccoli, or chicken tostadas, I never thought I would love the cafeteria to the point where I would want it outside of school. However, with the arrival of the new schedule, I’ve developed a further appreciation for all the cafeteria has to offer–people and food.
It started when I realized that with the new schedule I would never have a long lunch, which meant saying goodbye to off campus dining. It’s not as if I wouldn’t go to the cafeteria in years past, I would most days, but during that three hour break on Tuesdays, or on a day that I didn’t like the hot lunch, I would normally go out to eat with my friends. However, once I started going to the cafeteria every day, I realized all that I was missing out on. This year, I made my own salad for the first time, had soups that weren’t tomato, tried an assortment of flatbreads from buffalo chicken to classic pepperoni, and even enjoyed the infamous citrus glazed salmon.
But, food is not all the cafeteria has to offer. The cafeteria staff who feed the Parker community everyday are some of the kindest people in the building, and never fail to put a smile on my face. Plus, since being in the cafeteria more often, I’ve realized how Keisha has memorized hundreds of five digit codes, so not only are the cafeteria staff extremely kind, they’re also extremely thoughtful.
Sadly, this love I have for the cafeteria is not shared by some of my peers, specifically by those who have been here since Lower School. I think the reason for this is because they’ve been at Parker for most of their lives, they don’t know any different. Whenever I hear someone say the cafeteria food is bad, I cringe because at my old school, we had absolutely terrible food. Coming to Parker was a major step up from a bar that was already on the floor. Not only was it bad, but there was only one option–hot lunch. If you think about Parker, hot lunch wouldn’t be a bad thing, but when hot lunch means borderline inedible food, it’s a lot worse.
School lunch has an infamous reputation across America, however Parker’s cafeteria is a major exception. After experiencing both a school with bad food and a school with good food, I can definitively say that we are more than lucky here at Parker. So the next time you’re heading off campus to eat, consider giving the cafeteria another try,–because sometimes, the best things are right in front of you.
