The first month back to school has come with countless changes, such as the influx of students, controversial schedule changes, and budget cuts that left most sports and clubs struggling to raise funds. A majority of the changes were anticipated — changes rumored far before their official announcement. However, another quieter shift occurred that few even noticed: lunch.

In addition to lunch schedule changes that leave some students hungrily awaiting 1 p.m. to eat lunch, the organization of the lunch menu changed as well. Although most of the food spots in the Camas High School (CHS) cafeteria remain the same, the North Commons introduced a weekly menu rather than a daily menu change.

At first glance, it’s easy to assume that these changes are due to budget constraints. However, according to Clay Blakeman, the lead cook at CHS, the answer is a bit more complex.

“We have a contract with a third-party company … the school district pays the third-party company … a certain dollar amount per meal, and then the state subsidizes the school a little bit, and that’s how we can keep costs down.” Blakeman said.

Additionally, Blakeman notes that this system remains untouched by budget cuts due to a contract that allows costs to stay constant. Other issues, including food waste, caused the change.

“One of the issues I was running into with daily specials was … waste issues,” Blakeman said. “When it was each day … a lot of the times I would end up throwing a lot of the food away if it wasn’t popular, or we just made the incorrect amount.” 

It can be extremely difficult to predict the popularity of certain products, and the stakes are even higher with quickly perishable items, making quality control a pain. With the weekly North Commons schedule, Blakeman and his team are now able to go on a “use it as needed” basis, significantly reducing CHS’s food waste. 

A large part of Blakeman’s job is prediction. By using statistics and previous data, he gauges how many students intend to eat school lunch on any given day. Occasionally, the data is predictable, such as the number of students who eat school lunch daily — between 800 and 900. Other times, it has seemingly no causation, such as the fact that 13 to 20% more students buy school lunch on Thursdays. By having a weekly rather than daily schedule, there is less chance of overestimating or underestimating amounts.

Despite the benefits of the lunch menu change to staff, student opinion varies.

For some, the change in the North Commons has gone undetected as students prefer to explore the cafeteria’s other options. 

“I haven’t been eating lunch from [the North Commons],”  said CHS senior Ella Fischer. “I usually only get pizza.”

For some of the North Commons regulars however, the change has garnered more attention. 

“Every other food option at school is pretty constant and the North Commons was the only really variable food item … even if you didn’t like the option that day you could always look forward to tomorrow or later in the week,” said CHS senior Lyra Bajaj. “It causes the lines to be very disproportionate since, if it’s something that doesn’t interest a lot of people, the other lines for the whole week will be way longer.”

Blakeman acknowledged potential criticism of the new lunch system but also highlighted the difficulty of balancing choice with sustainability. 

“I try to get it as close as possible, it sucks, someone may not get what they want that day, but we’d all rather have that than throwing away food at the end of the day.” 

As CHS continues to be molded by budget cuts and lunch contracts draw to a close, only time will tell what adjustments will be made in the future. 

For now, CHS cooks continue to do their best to feed hundreds of students, and students are taking note.  

“In general, they are pretty inclusive of different types of foods and dietary restrictions,” Bajaj said.  “… they have the salad option, they’ve got burgers, pizza, and a rice bowl … I’d say they have a good variety.”