Here at Westside, there are a wide variety of lunch options served daily. To many, it appears that the school tries to cater to what most students and building members find popular, but there are some individuals who feel differently.

Many students who are vegan, vegetarian, or gluten free; feel as though that the school does not supply enough lunch options for them and their dietary needs.

Junior Brennan Zatechka has been a vegetarian for a little over a year, and believes that there should be more vegetarian and vegan friendly lunch options served at school.

“I feel like the world mostly caters to meat eaters, since that’s what the majority of people are.” Zatechka said. “It’s hard to be vegetarian, but especially hard to be vegan, since most lunch options contain meat and or dairy.”

Zatechka expresses concern about those with dietary needs not being able to eat at school.

“It’s hard to go to school and deal with stuff, and not being able to eat there on top of that,” says Zatechka. “Then you have people waiting until they get home to eat, and that’s almost 8 or 9 hours they’ve gone without eating; that’s not healthy.”

Regarding future school lunches, Zatechka has a few suggestions.

“I think it’d be nice if they had more vegan options, even if it’s just salad without cheese, more dairy-free options, or alternate forms of protein would help too.” Zatechka said. “Even if students aren’t vegetarian or vegan it could help them expand their horizons; they could realize how many different things you can eat while being either vegetarian or vegan.”

Sophomore Alessandra Meza has celiac disease, making her allergic to gluten and resulting in her following a gluten free diet.

Meza also sides with Zatechka, feeling as though there should definitely be more school lunch options that are appealing to those with specific dietary needs.

“I think there’s a lot of students that have certain dietary needs, and the amount just keeps growing and growing,” Meza said.

Meza recognizes that the school does have a few options, but feels that there should be a change.

“I understand that the school does provide options, but there’s not very many,” Meza said.  “They’re not very accessible and I feel like we should improve that, for all students with or without certain dietary needs.”

With most vegan, vegetarian and gluten free options being lukewarm or cold food, Meza feels as though the cafeteria should expand their horizons.

“It would be nice if there were options readily available, especially warmer food. Hot lunches that everyone else gets to eat, that are also gluten free, would be awesome.” Meza said.