School lunches. Mention these two words together and most students think of overcooked vegetables, soggy pizza and uneatable lunchtime fare. But students at North Atlanta might be surprised to learn about the systematic efforts to improve what we’re eating in the cafeteria.

School meals, both breakfast and lunch, are provided to students by an outside vendor. Atlanta Public Schools contracts school food through Sodexo, a multinational food services and facilities management corporation headquartered in Paris, France. In North America, Sodexo serves more than 15 million consumers every day. All cafeteria staff are Sodexo employees, working at APS.

Cafeteria managers receive menus from APS directors. From there, school cafeteria managers and staff across the district adopt these menu guidelines on the basis of the enrollment of their respective schools. In North Atlanta’s case, every day more than 1,600 students must be fed.

“Mostly everything comes frozen in a case or a bag, but everything is healthy,” said Teshia Williams, Sodexo cafeteria employee at NAHS. All food served in the cafeteria must meet all state and federal nutrition requirements. In a nod to those who have allergies, all food served is peanut free.

In the past several years, considerable effort made has been made to improve food quality across the district. Assistant Principal Robert Whitman has followed the success of these initiatives. He mentioned that APS hired a corporate chef and there was an effort to ensure that food offerings met student desires, while simultaneously meeting all state and federal guidelines. “It’s not the easiest thing to serve food that’s both nutritious and popular. I think they did a good job in finding the right mix,” he said.

Despite the nationwide stereotype that school food is substandard, many students are satisfied with North Atlanta’s lunches. Sophomore Kyra Vandriver says, “Honestly, I eat school lunch almost every day and it isn’t that bad.”