No More BBQ Chicken?

In recent weeks, news about NYC public school budget cuts have been released, resulting in frustration among many students. 

One of the cuts upsetting students, is the discontinuation of pricier school lunch items. These items include roasted BBQ chicken, guacamole, to-go salads, cookies, dumplings, and bean and cheese burritos. Additionally, “Breakfast meal kits, French toast sticks, bagel sticks, ciabatta bread, and sweet potato oatmeal muffins will be scratched,” according to Chalkbeat. The reason? It’s all part of a $60 million dollar plan for budget cuts from the NYC Department of Education (DOE).

The public school system in the city serves around 900,000 meals per day to students. Lunch for every student is completely free, since 2017, when policy changes took place for free school lunch. For the school systems, each breakfast meal costs around $3.10 to make, and each lunch roughly $4.70, as reported by the DOE.

The reason behind the cuts is to help the wave of migrants who have been entering the city seeking asylum. In the past year and a half, over 175,000 migrants have entered NYC, in need of shelter, food, and other necessities and accommodations. So far, NYC has spent $1.45 billion to help migrants, and may reach an estimated $12 billion on asylum seekers over the next three years as reported by NYC.gov. 

Some students aren’t bothered by the menu changes: “I haven't seen that much change, and there's also other stuff I like on the menu,” States Armelle, a junior at The High School for Environmental Studies. “I think it's worth it, for making sure that people are safe” (in reference to the migrants).

Some students, such as Mo, a junior, feel some of these items deserved to go off the menu. “They were terrible, they tasted like plastic, it did not taste like Barbeque, glad it’s gone.” (in reference to the BBQ chicken removal). 

On the contrary, some students are displeased with these revisions. It’s a “frustrating change” as stated by Jadon, a junior. 

“Students look forward to other item meals that have now been restricted,” says Katelyn, a senior. “They took things out that a lot of students eat.”

“The BBQ chicken was one of the highlights of the school lunches…I never see anyone take out a pb&j sandwich or a cheese sandwich when BBQ [chicken] is on the menu.” 

While it is unclear when all listed items will be fully removed, items have been slowly disappearing since February. 

Disclaimer: The cuts were retracted as of March 6th. French toast sticks, bean and cheese burritos, and chicken dumplings will be returning by early April, however bagel sticks, chicken drumsticks, guacamole, and cookies will not be returning according a spokesperson for the Education Department.