The Wildcat
Review
Review
Could School Lunches Be Improved?
By Elena Lopez - Nov 5, 2025
We all know our favorite time of the school day is lunch time. It’s where you can finally get a break from learning and instead sit with your friends and eat. You know the drill: You put your backpack down and head straight to the lunch line before it becomes too long. You get your food and head back to your table. You sit down and take a bite. Then you realize that the food is not what you expected it to taste like.
You are not the only one who thinks that school lunches taste unpalatable. More than half of students in the U.S agree with you. For instance, Edgewood 7th grade student Ava Pichardo said, “I think school lunches should be improved because they don't taste good. The texture for most of the food is dry and rubbery.” This leads you to the frequently asked question: Should school lunches be improved?
Today most people or kids would say, “Yes!” but the adults would say, “No.” What is the rationale? Well, kids would say “Yes” because they are the ones who are eating it, the ones going hungry for the rest of the day because they did not like the food, and they do not have enough time to eat it. The adults would say “No” because of the lack of kitchen equipment, limited budget and what the cafeteria staff have to prepare. Plus it has to be healthy.
For example, Edgewood History teacher Mr. O'Leary said, ”I think schools should not be improved because we don't have the money for it. But if we did, I would say yes.” I agree with the adults, but what happens to the food that's served? A significant amount ends up in the trash because students find it unappetizing or just skip lunch in general to avoid the lunch. So why would the school and the district spend money for more than half the kids to throw it away?
Well the reason is because of the limited budget. As we know money can be a blessing and a curse. A balanced meal often is food from a restaurant which costs $15 or more for a person. Most schools do not have the money for these types of meals. Unfortunately the funding from government budgets is not enough, so they have to rely on student payments for the National School Lunch Program also known as NSLP.
The way the school lunches taste is not the only problem. Another problem most students have is time. Both the lunch line and lack of time to eat. At most schools the average time to eat lunch is 20 to 30 minutes. Which at first glance sounds like a lot of time until you realise that the lunch line takes around up to 10 minutes to get through. And by the time you sit down, you only have 15 minutes left to eat. According to the California Department of Education, students should have at least 20 minutes to eat. One student says, “I think we should have more time to eat because the lunch line is usually around 8 minutes, and we also have to use the restroom. So by the time we eat, we only have like 15 minutes.”
In conclusion, school lunch should be improved because it does not fill students up enough, and for some kids they just do not like it, which leads them to skip lunch. But unfortunately schools have limited budgeting for the lunch food. This leads to less food and worse quality.
Space Exploration
By Adrian Medina - Nov 7, 2025
NASA, we all have heard of them. But if you haven't, I’ll give you a quick explanation. NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It's a U.S. government agency responsible for space exploration, aeronautics research, and Earth and space science. But what I’m going to be talking about is one of their missions called Artemis ll.
Artemis ll is the second mission to take place for the Artemis program. The first one was on November 16, 2022. This next one is going to take place in April 2026. It would last about ten days. Artemis ll is the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis program. The whole point of the mission is to test several systems like life support under actual deep-space conditions. They're also going to test the measurements of the radiation levels both inside and outside of the spacecraft to better understand the deep-space environment.
NASA is going to do a lunar flyby, not a landing. So the crew will go around the moon and come back. While they're doing the flyby, the crew is going to take pictures of the moon’s surface particularly from the far side to study its geology. The four people that are actually going to be on the ship are: commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christian Koch and Jeremy Hansen. Some risks and challenges the crew and others can face are accidentally staying longer than expected or reliability for the hardware.
I asked my peers several questions: "Why do you think space travel is important?”, “What do you think is interesting about space?” And "How do you think using space travel can help us in the future ?” Let's see what they say.
For my first question, Jayden Salazar (8th grade) said, “I think space travel is important because it helps us discover the mystery of space.” Student Alexia Duran (8th grade) said, “ I think space travel is important because we are able to explore space and find out more information about other planets.” Finally, Jocelyn Diaz (8th grade) said, “We can learn more about our galaxy and how it works, and future generations can discover stuff we can't now.”
For the second question,. Jayden said, “What's so interesting about space is there's a lot of mysteries about space, like how black holes are still kind of a mystery.” Alexia said, “I think that only exploring 5% of space is interesting, and there is so much more that we don't know about it.” Jocelyn said, “What I find interesting is how far it goes and if it ends.”
Then I asked the last question. Jayden said, “It can help by protecting us and making different discoveries." Alexia said, “I think it can help us by helping human survival and improving our understanding of the universe and help address global challenges like climate change.” And lastly Jocelyn said, “It can help by being able to find out about the galaxy and what's going on about Earth.”
Dodgers Win the 2025 World Series
By Audree Zendejas - Dec 10, 2025
Do you watch baseball? Do you know of people who do watch baseball? If you don’t, the Los Angeles Dodgers have just won their 9th World Series Championship game! These past World Series games that were won by The Dodgers won in 1955, 1959, 1963, 1965, 1981, 1988, 2020, 2024, and 2025. If you didn't catch on, the Dodgers winning this past World Series made them win Back to Back World Series Games!
Before I dive too deep into the 2025 World Series, what even is the World Series? You may know, but if you don’t, the World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB), played between the winners of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). It is played in a series of best-of-seven playoff, meaning that the first team to win four games is crowned as the MLB champion. It has been played every year since 1903, with the exception of 1994 from a league lockout...
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By Jocelyn Diaz - December 10 2025
Who just released their fourth studio album? If you guessed singer, songwriter and producer Daniel Caesar, you're right!...
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EMS Boys Basketball
By Liam Maldonado - December 10, 2025
The Edgewood Middle School boys basketball team has just kicked off their season! First, they brawled with the San Jose Charter School Sharks at home on Tuesday, November 4...
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Can Money buy happiness according to Edgewood middle school?
By Jasmin Becerra - November 23, 2025
Can money buy happiness? The question seems rather simple, yes or no, but it's not...
Story continued in Opinion