Most high-school lunches lie on a spectrum of delicious to “okay.” Santa Fe High has a small variety of lunch choices in the Commons, with the sections Salads, On A Bun, Pizza, and Rotating offered every day. The options, other than bringing a packed lunch from home, are to eat school lunch, buy from the Alarm Clock Cafe, buy from ROTC in the Activity Center, or .

In previous years, though, students could purchase meals from the Jazzy Cafe in the A-building. Its recent closing reduces the choices for lunch and “Where did Jazzy go?” is a common question. Jazzy Café used to sell pizza slices for a dollar each as well as many snack items.

Assistant Principal Cheryl Romero reported that the Jazzy closed because the kitchen space it occupied needs to be used for instructional purposes. “We have [life-skills] students who need support in a kitchen environment,” she said. Since the room was repurposed for instruction only, the Jazzy was “put on hiatus.”

Rita Bowles, an education assistant who works with the life skills program students, explained that they are hoping to find another space on campus to operate out of.

Jazzy Cafe helped to fundraise for field trips for students in the Abilities Focused Learning Center. “We still have money from last year, but a lot of the kids were sad about the closing,” she said. She said that Jazzy Café not only helped to fundraise, but was also an experience that taught students money management and the ability to socialize more comfortably.

But there are still other options.

ROTC sells Subway sandwiches with chips and a drink for $5. ROTC also sells Uncrustables (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches) for $3.

The Alarm Clock Café sells breakfast burritos, baked potatoes, sandwiches, bagels, baked goods, ice cream, slush puppies, drinks, and more. Prices range from $3 for a burrito to $2 for a potato to $1.50 for drinks to $1 for ice cream and 50 cents for cookies.

In the dance room in the Performing Arts building, they sell cups of noodles, cookies, chips, and drinks for $2 each.

But alternative options like the Alarm Clock Cafe and ROTC are more expensive than school lunch and aren’t always affordable for students. A Commons meal costs $2.75, unless a student qualifies for free or reduced lunch. (The reduced lunch price is 40 cents.) If a student buys lunch every day, that adds up to $55 a month for full price or $8 for reduced.

Santa Fe High School’s lunch offerings must meet these health requirements: No more than thirty percent of calories from fat; less than ten percent of the daily allowance of saturated fat; and containing iron, calcium, calories, Vitamin A and C, according to the SFPS nutrition and fitness website.

Just because the food is healthier doesn’t mean it isn’t good. When considering school lunch, students must take into account that the purpose is to feed over a thousand people in 45 minutes. The focus is not to make gourmet meals.

The daily rotating menu can be found with this link:

https://www.schoolnutritionandfitness.com/webmenus2/#/view?id=5952d2176803fa0e652bf2c8&siteCode=3503