This year Colorado started the program Healthy School Meals for All, making school lunches free no matter household income.

   Nutrition Services Manager, Suzanne Heskin, shares her opinion on free lunches, noting a noticeable increase in school lunch consumption. ¨I think it’s great that there’s no stigma around the free lunch anymore. I think it takes some burden off of families. It is more work because it’s about twice as many lunches.” Heskin addresses the benefits of these free lunches, stating that whether students have enough food at home or not, they will have access to it at school. However, Heskin acknowledges that “ “it’s a burden on some of the taxpayers and it creates more work for us.¨

   Even though it may be more work, HHS lunch staff think it’s a great idea. Some of our students at Heritage have the same thoughts and are appreciative of how this is a big deal for Colorado schools and families.

   Alessandro Mincuzzi  says, ¨I think it’s a great idea. If you have to buy your lunch everyday it’s going to be expensive at the end of the year.¨

   Hannah Sanchez agrees, stating, ¨I feel good about them because I think they should be provided for the students.¨

   Another student, Armony Teasley, suggests that the lunch staff add “more variety” to the available lunches as a way to improve the program.

   These three students agree that if the food tasted a little bit better and there was more variety of what they served, the nutrition program would be better.

  Overall, the students of HHS have their own opinions about school lunches like they should be provided to the student. As long as laws don’t change, it looks like schools will have free lunches in the future.