Serving Up Success

Selah Hartman • January 15, 2025

From beloved yogurt parfaits to the new Korean BBQ bowls, the Peninsula cafeteria offers a wide variety of popular meals for students to choose from that keep them excited to come back each week. The cafeteria serves breakfast and lunch on weekdays during Panther Time and lunch, and the frequent long lines demonstrate the cafeteria’s widespread acclaim from the student body.

When preparing food for the breakfast and lunch hours, the cafeteria staff puts extra time and effort into the meals they make for students — most of the cafeteria staff have been working at this school for over 20 years. They all strive to provide a multitude of multicultural and diet-friendly menu items every day and pride themselves on their specialty made-from-scratch menu items. The freshly prepared items such as the ramen, french bread pizzas, beef or chicken bowls and the yogurt parfaits are in high demand among students and now make up more than half of the menu. Peninsula cafeteria manager Roberta Shreeves comments on her favorite part of her job.

“The [highlight] of my job is feeding the children and making them happy,” Shreeves said. “[Providing] them with nutritional meals fuels their brains, [improves] attitudes and helps them learn more.”

The cafeteria provides around ten different menu items each day, and the menu options rotate every three months. Some of the most popular breakfast items include breakfast burritos on Thursdays which consist of potatoes, eggs, cheese and sausage or bacon; donut bars, which are glazed old-fashioned donuts; cereal, which includes Cheerios, Apple Jacks and Cinnamon Toast Crunch as options and Pillsbury “mini-cinnis”, which are either strawberry or cinnamon cream cheese-filled pastries. The favorite lunch items among students are the Dominos pepperoni and cheese pizzas served on Wednesdays and made-from-scratch items such as the ramen, Korean BBQ bowls, chicken and vegetarian dumplings, meat and vegetarian rotini and the teriyaki chicken bowls. The cafeteria also has many vegetarian options, such as plant-based Italian sausage pizzas or entirely meatless options, such as the chili, the quesadillas and their new salad bar. The feedback from students is largely positive, as these popular options run out almost immediately after the start of lunch.

Out of all the many different menu items that the cafeteria has to offer, the one that stands out the most is the new Korean BBQ bowl. It is made with broccoli, beef and a sweet teriyaki sauce and it is served with white rice and an optional soy sauce. It is served on Mondays and Fridays during lunch and it is a completely made-from-scratch menu item, debatably the best one yet. The Korean BBQ bowl is a top favorite to many because of how hearty and warm it is and how it adds a burst of flavor to an ordinary school lunch. Another favorite is the yogurt parfait which is served during both lunch and Panther Time on various days. It is made with either vanilla, mango or strawberry yogurt and comes with granola. The yogurt parfait is a lighter option for anyone in the mood for a creamy, sweet and fruity on-the-go school meal option. From a hearty, warm meal to a quick sweet treat, the cafeteria offers a variety of items that are beloved by the student body. Sophomore Madalynn Olmos goes into detail on one of her favorite school menu items.

“The Korean BBQ bowls are my favorite, the beef is both [sweet] and savory and it melts in your mouth,” Olmos said. “It is one of my favorite meals to have on a cold day.”

Even though there is plenty of positive student feedback on the cafeteria and the food they serve, the one issue is the seemingly never-ending lines outside the cafeteria and the often lack of abundant lunch carts around campus. Cutting and skipping the lines has always been a major issue since students are eager to get their favorite menu items before the cafeteria runs out, not only making it difficult for the cafeteria staff to hand out the meals, but annoying other students who have to wait for almost all of lunch to receive their food. The cafeteria staff tries time and time again to combat the hordes of students that seem to cluster around the lunch cart by emphasizing the importance of single-file lines. Olmos mentioned ways of improving the lunch line situation.

“The lines can get long and sometimes if you wait [too long], you end up spending half of your lunchtime in the lines,” Olmos said. “Maybe if there were more lunch carts, people wouldn’t have to wait as long or they could offer more of the popular items so that they don’t run out [as quickly]”.

Students can get school lunch during the designated times from either the cafeteria or the two lunch carts that are near the H building and the S building. Each student can get one free breakfast, one free lunch and the required fruit and additional snacks can be purchased with a Titan account at the snack shack, which is open during Panther Time and ten minutes after the beginning of lunch. Students can also go to the PVPUSD website to find more information on the food services or to load funds onto their Titan account. While there are things—like the lunch lines—that could be improved upon, the cafeteria works diligently each and every single day to serve meals that keep our student body healthy, happy and fed. Sophomore Andrew Pacheco discussed his thoughts on getting school lunch.

“Lunch and Panther Time are great breaks from the school day and I'm glad that we have [many] good lunch and breakfast options that help us fuel for our next classes,” Pacheco said. “I really appreciate the variety and effort that the cafeteria staff provides and I’m sure others do too.”