Besides the regular meal options that are offered each day to students, there has been a new way of eating lunch that was introduced in the 2017-2018 school year.

The lunch bar is located in the middle of the patio commons with each other menu item surrounding it. This allows students to build their own lunch and get what they want and also distinguish their portion sizes.

“It’s all about being able to customize your entree,” said Director of Child Nutrition, Sarah Chellberg.

Each day the lunch bar has a different option for the students to choose from. Monday is Chinese, Tuesday is Build-a-Burger, Wednesday is Pasta, Thursday is Ramen, and Friday is Mexican.

Chellberg had ideas for the lunch bar and had to get help from an architect to make her vision a reality. She got an expert who knows all about how the layout of a kitchen should look to help her so she could best display what she had in mind for the lunch bar.

“It was between myself and Randy Hoffman of Montgomery Hoffman Associates on the project. He does professional school kitchens,” said Chellberg.

Chellberg has been working on this lunch bar idea for about two years now. It took a few years to get all of the details put in place and then it was put into the high school.

“Plans for the kitchen were done in the spring of 15-16, while last year was all about starting construction,” said Chellberg.

The lunch bar opened up for the first time this year and has brought in several new opinions from students who purchase from it.

“I love it because it’s like pizza but a new surprise every day,” said sophomore Tyler Brundage.

Brundage is a student who enjoys the new lunch bar and the new possibilities and food it brings to the school cafeteria now.

“It not only gives more freedom of choice, but it’s also a real good food option,” said Brundage.

A few students have concerns about the safety of the foods and how clean the lunch bar really is. The concern of allergens was also brought up but Chellberg had already thought about that.

“Allergens aren’t really a problem because the food we serve doesn’t really have any nut allergens, the only possible threats would be allergies of soy or wheat,” said Chellberg.

Another concern was the sanitary aspect of the open tray lunch bar. But Chellberg assures students that the lunch bar is safe to eat from.

“Our employees are all trained in food safety. Temperatures are taken and documented of all cooked food before placing food on the line.  We use a three step process to clean, rinse and sanitize all food contact surfaces,” said Chellberg.

The cost of the lunch bar is the same as a normal entree, plus two more dollars for each extra scoop. Students have different opinions of the lunch bar, but always have something new on the menu so there are more options to choose from.