‘Something to Look Forward to’: MPS High Schoolers Say New Salad Option a Step Up From Hot Lunch

By Alex Klaus

This story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find other stories reporting on fifteen city neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Visit milwaukeenns.org.

Perry Perkins wasn’t expecting much when he heard his high school was going to serve salads during lunch; but once he saw them, he was impressed.

“It’s something to look forward to,” he said. “They got cut up chicken, it’s nice. They got cheese, eggs.”

But Perkins, a student at the Lynde and Harry Bradley Technology and Trade School, said the salads are limited and he had trouble getting them. He said he sees about four at a time during his lunch period and has only been able to try them once. 

“It was very good and I will be getting it again,” Perkins said. 

Starting this school year, Milwaukee Public Schools added full-sized grab-and-go salads as a lunch option at school. Students previously got a smaller side salad with their lunch. 

Superintendent Brenda Cassellius floated the idea of salad bars in the high schools in June. 

Stephen Davis, MPS media relations manager, said the idea eventually turned into pre-made grab-and-go salads after student feedback indicated the salad bars would take too much time away from their lunch period. 

Students who spoke to NNS said they like having the new option, but some suggest changes to reduce food waste and better tailor ingredients to what students want. Others want to try one but haven’t been able to. 

‘Just because the lunch is edible don’t mean it’s good’

Golda Meir Upper Campus sophomore Martess Cox has much to love about his school, but not the lunch. He brings his own meals and only opts to eat the pizza when the school offers it. 

“I’m not exaggerating, most of the times it’s nasty,” he said. “Just because the lunch is edible don’t mean it’s good.”

When he forgets to make lunch and looks at the food his school offers, he said he’d “rather go to somebody and buy food from them.”

He hasn’t seen many salads, but he said the ones he sees students eating look fresh. He still opts to bring his own lunch but would consider getting a salad one day.

Aoki White, a junior at the Milwaukee School of Languages, said she would love to try a salad during her lunch period but they run out too quickly. 

“We have about two every lunch period and my lunch period is first come, first served,” she said. “I’m never first or first to be served.”

White said the hot lunch options are repetitive — last year, they had mashed potatoes and gravy at least once a week. She doesn’t feel the other options are accommodating for people with dietary restrictions, and the salads felt like a great solution. 

“But the lack of them is kind of also a problem, right?” she said.

Every day, each school prepares fresh salads, Davis said. The food production manager looks at several pieces of data to decide how many salads to make, including the other menu items of the day and USDA food production records tracking how many salads the kitchen made and how many students took them. 

Davis said the manager uses this, along with enrollment data, weather, upcoming field trips and the day of the week to decide how many salads their kitchen should make for lunch.

Ramir Olinger, a sophomore at Reagan High School, said if the hot lunch isn’t nachos or breakfast for lunch, he takes the salad or doesn’t eat.

Caesar salads are his favorite, but he said not all salads are created equal.

“Sometimes the garden salad would be good,” Olinger said. “The Greek salad, no, that’s not OK.”

Reagan High School sophomore Jhuablai Thao said she came from a school with only one choice for lunch.

“I’m glad that when I came here for high school, there was a variety of options,” she said. “I find it nice.”

Students mixed on salad bars versus pre-made salads

At Milwaukee School of Languages, White said the salads are typically next to the milk in the lunch line so students can make a quick decision about whether they want hot lunch or a salad. But she said she’d prefer to style the salads herself.

Olinger worries about students messing with salad bar items but still likes the concept of choosing what he wants on his salad.  

“I’m a very picky eater, I don’t eat corn, I don’t eat tomatoes, I don’t eat cauliflower, none of that,” he said. “It’s always something I got to get taken off.”

Josiah Roschke, another student at Reagan High School, said the grab-and-go salads are probably more convenient for staff, but from a student perspective, having options with a salad bar would be more convenient. 

“I think it also helps reduce food waste, because if you’re putting stuff in that people don’t want to eat, I think they’re just throwing them away,” Roschke said. 

Perkins prefers the grab-and-go options because they’re quicker and safer. He said he doesn’t know how students would mess with the food, and pre-packaging makes him feel better. 

“It’s going to especially take longer when people got to figure out what they want to get on (their salads),” he said. “Lines be out the door already with the regular lunch.”

Students propose solutions

Olinger said offering a menu of a few different salads would help, since he doesn’t always like the ingredients on every type of salad the school serves.

Cox, from Golda Meir, suggested the school write everything it plans on serving for lunch on a whiteboard each day, so students getting breakfast can prepare for what the lunchroom is serving that day. He’s checked online and it’s sometimes wrong, which makes it harder for students to prepare. 

“You go all the way down (to the lunch room in the basement) to see it’s something that you really don’t even like,” he said. “So now you either have to scavenge to find something you like or, you know, you just sit there hungry.”

Thao is concerned about the plastic waste that comes with bigger containers. She’d like to see the district bring in someone specializing in sustainability to find a solution.

She also suggested the district try a Chipotle-style salad bar, where staff assembles the salads based on student choices. 

“That makes it more sanitary because we’re not doing it, but they’re doing it for us,” she said.

Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.