Small candy bars cost 25 cents at the school store. - Photo by Amelie Champely
Students of all grades have noticed the change in NRHS's vending machines. Cheetos© are proudly labeled 'Baked!' and 3 Musketeers© bars have forty-five percent less fat than before. It is no surprise, then, that an undercurrent of whisperings has occurred about the new, healthier choices. Even Nauset's teachers have been heard gossiping about a 'Candy Ban.'
Sure, Dr. Richard Hoffmann, Superintendent of Nauset Schools, wants students to have healthier options for lunches and snacks, but that doesn't mean he's going to ban all candy from being sold at the high school. It's a good thing, too: "I would die without my Skittles©," laments sophomore Teresa Anton, an avid lover of the sweets. Instead, Dr. Hoffmann wants to find "a balance" between what's tasty to students and what's healthy for them. Most relieving, however, is the superintendent's desire to consult an array of students who prefer both junk and health food and gather data about what's being sold around the school before he makes any drastic changes.
Though surely students won't die without candy bars, unneeded dissent would issue throughout the student body if candy wasn't sold in school anymore. Mrs. Walls, who runs the School Store with Mrs. Walker, assures that she and her staff have no intention of ceasing candy sales. "Healthy things cost less," she explains. Juice, raisins, and Chex Mix© bars only cost fifty cents, whereas candy bars cost eight-five cents. It's mostly the same in the vending machines. Nature Valley© bars are seventy-five cents, and most candy costs a dollar. Regardless, a high majority of what's sold in the school is junk food, even if there are a few nutritious alternatives.
This, of course, is without even mentioning the cafeteria lunches. Maybe regular pasta has been replaced by wheat, but most students who regularly eat chicken patties or pizza probably don't want to know the meals' nutrition facts, which are not made readily available for students, anyway. Even the lane farthest to the left in the cafeteria, which is considered to have "safer" options, provides salads covered in questionable cheese and pretzels with more than a little too much salt.
That doesn't mean it's impossible to buy a healthy lunch at NRHS. An apple or yogurt can be bought from the cafeteria, with 100-Calorie Oreo© or Chips Ahoy!© snacks from the cafeteria vending machines for a bit of indulgence (fifty cents.) When it all comes down to it, though, I'm getting my usual: seventy-five cent Goldfish©, Reese's Peanutbutter Cups© for a dollar, and water. It may not be brain food, but the promise of Goldfish© helps me concentrate through the day's first two blocks.