But the money only goes so far. Salinas may be the salad bowl of the nation, but the district can't afford to buy lettuce more nutritious than iceberg. Not that students are complaining about the vitamins they're missing in their meals. Those interviewed said they prefer the convenience and taste of the cafeteria food over homemade lunches. Some of the food is sick that they sell.
Some food has hair in it.
On bad menu days, he said, he just buys pizza. School systems hope to remove stigma of subsidized meals for students Being poor is never easy, and negotiating the cafeteria line as a low-income student is no exception. Low-income students whose meals are wholly paid for or partly subsidized by the federal government must sometimes go through separate cafeteria lines or eat from a different menu than their classmates. These strictures sometimes embarrass students so much that they go hungry rather than appear poor to their peers. While many school sin the Salinas Union High School District, including North Salinas High, still maintain separate cafeteria lines for subsidized meals, that system is gradually changing to follow the system being used at Monterey Peninsula Unified High School District.