Buy Or Bring?

Find out why some kids are choosing to bring their own lunches rather than buying it at school.

Every day hundreds of students line up in the cafeteria to purchase the food, snacks, and drinks provided by the school. Although a majority of the student body cycles through the Sodexo kitchen, there are some students who bring lunch from home daily.

“My mama makes [lunch] for me, no need to buy it,” answered Jarrod Burkholder (’16) when the Talon asked why he brought his lunch from home.

Why would you need to buy lunch if you have it made for you already? As Kenji Matsuno (’17) explains, it may be more economical to bring lunch than to buy it at school.

“It’s expensive [at school]”

Kenji was not the only one who had this opinion.

“It’s cheaper and I like it better” Jacob Montrose (’16)

The students that bring lunch from home think it more economical to bring their relatively cheaper, homemade lunch rather than purchasing two pieces of pizza for five dollars. But that’s all relative, because for all we know someone could be eating a 10 dollar sandwich brought from home.

Money was not the only argument students had for bringing bag lunch.

“When I bring lunch I can bring what I want to eat, like a root beer or a cupcake.” said Alex Tagudin (’17)

Although numerous options of food and snack are offered in the cafeteria, there is no way Sodexo could match the inventory of the world outside the cafeteria. But homemade lunches have something intangible that is simply not available in the cafeteria, as Michael Grundman (’15) explains,”You just cant argue with a good, homemade sandwich”.

A lunch made by hand the night before or morning of by yourself or a loved one  just cannot be beat.

Despite cost complaints and fewer choices, many students regularly buy lunch at school. Although some do bring lunches from home, it is apparent through the out-the-door lines during all school lunches that a lot, if not most, students still chose to buy lunch from school.

Whether it be for convenience or just a likeness of the cafeteria food people continue to buy food at school.  Yet the minority of students that bring lunch from home remain unswayed by convenience and the culinary diversity of the cafeteria meals and continue to bring their brown bags to school daily.