Something new is cooking in the LHS cafeteria: students have noticed that in the past month or so, the appearance in the fries has changed.
If a student were to buy a small package of fries for $1.15 in December, that student may consume a thin, slightly yellowed, heavily salted fry. But today, that fry would appear bigger, more golden in color, and crispier.
This new change in the fries have come to many students attention and have been becoming more popular.
“Sales definitely went up. We were selling three to three and a half cases of the old fries a day and just yesterday, we sold over five cases,” noted Mr. Daniel Lyon, who runs the LHS cafeteria.“I think the fries might be more popular because the fries are thicker and because of this stay hotter longer, and that may be one reason why they (Chartwells) changed it.”
Besides the obvious appearance of the fries, the taste is very different from the fries served earlier in the year. Some people may be questioning if these new changes to the fries are any healthier than the old.
“We use trans-fat free oil and we can deep-fry them where other schools have to bake them,” Lyon noted.
Libertyville High School is allowed to deep fry food because it is not apart of The National School Lunch Program, where other schools are. The National School Lunch Program provides school money for their lunches, but those school must follow certain nutritional rules. LHS is not involved with this program, therefore is allowed to deep fry the cafeteria fries and other lunch items.
This is the golden and crispy look of the new fries.
Students line up in the cafeteria to purchase the new fries.
“When I first got here, they used to deep fry everything: pizza puffs, bosco sticks, etc. Now more is being baked,” explained Lyon.
District 128 receives lunches provided by Chartwells School Dining Services, which mentions a boatload of information about their healthy lunch options online.
“We’re bringing students’ favorite foods from outside school inside, including fresh local fruits and vegetables, pizza, classic All-American burgers and foods with Asian flair and bold, BBQ flavors. All of our food is made with care and utilizes lean meats, low-fat cheeses and whole grains,” noted Chartwells on its website.
Some may question how the company makes decisions on what they use in their food.
“Our company is always looking for the best deal on products and what is available. When a large company like Chartwells purchases items in such large amounts, we get a better pricing,” stated Lyon.
Knowing that Chartwells mentions “low-fat cheese and whole grains,” a consumer of the new fries may guess that this new recipe is a healthier version of the previous fry.
“I would say they are the same health-wise; both use starch and are deep fried,” Lyon added.
When asking a group of students if they enjoyed the new fries over the old, almost all of them blurted, “ yes!” However, sophomore Kathryn Dane thinks differently.
“Gross,” mentioned Dane once she saw the new fries. “I feel like they are more like sweet potato fries.”
“I buy them basically whenever I come to school,” sarcastically mentioned sophomore Lindsey Lyons.
According to Lyon, it is not possible to have both versions of the fries provided at lunch.
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