Sweet, luxurious, chocolaty. These are the words that describe Glen Rock High School’s favorite cafeteria item, the chocolate chip cookie.

Yet though the cookies here are quite delicious, some students would say that the food here in general doesn’t compare to the chocolate chip cookies.

“Some of it’s good, like the cookies, but it’s not really healthy. So, unless I want a snack I don’t really buy anything here,” said Anastasia Zenkevich (’18).

“The regular food, like the pizza and all that, I feel like I have no idea what it is,” said Zenkevich. “I bring my own lunch, partly because my parents don’t trust the food here either. I think they could just install more variety. The good thing I think they have is the salad bar, but other than that they just have pizza, burgers, pasta; not really healthy stuff.”

The majority of students buy cafeteria food every day, but whether it’s healthy is another question. One of the more popular lunch items is the mozzarella stick dish. While loved by many, they also have 440 calories per serving (5 pieces), 21 grams of fat, and 740 milligrams of sodium. Another crowd favorite, the pizza cheese quesadilla, has 340 calories per piece, 13 grams of fat, and 910 mg of sodium.

“It’s American food. It makes you fat,” said freshman Emily Pensec, referencing the overall lunch food. Pensac also suggested that the school provide more options at the kiosk outside of the gym, since the “only good thing” they have there is the cookies.

“I only like the chocolate milk, and cookies, and chips,” said freshman Kaylie Ernst.

While there are some healthy options offered here, such as the salad, fruit, and granola bars, the amount of healthy food doesn’t compare to unhealthy options.

Think about it. When a student walks into a room with muffins, pasta, and a banana, they are more likely to purchase one of the first two options. Some students do buy some healthy food, but students are more likely to bring an apple from home than spend twice as much on one, here at school.

Basically, if a student eats on the healthier side at lunch, they are most likely going to bring a bagged lunch.

Twelve GRHS students were asked what their favorite lunch item is, and eleven of them prefer cookies over everything else.

Pensac buys about eight chocolate chip cookies from the gym kiosk every day. Her friends seem to think it is a bit overboard, but they understand why she does what she does. Most of her friends, like Madison Hughes and Madie Hay, eat three to four cookies throughout the lunch period.