Cafeteria food costs have gone bananas

Sean Wilson, Guest Writer

Yellow, long, healthy and a dollar and ten cents. Bananas are one of the more expensive lunch menu items. Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) encourages students to choose a healthier lifestyle, yet a healthy banana costs one dollar and ten cents while students can buy two sugar-filled cookies for only a dollar. The students say that it is better for healthier foods to cost more because the candy will cost less and candy is “tastier.” Bananas have become so popular in FCPS that many students created a twitter page dedicated to the yellow fruit-@FCPSBananas. Bananas at the local supermarket can cost less than fifty cents a pound. When many students heard this shocking news, they responded with single word answers, such as “Wow” or “Seriously?” Bananas are considered by many to be beneficial to the body by giving it vital nutrients such as potassium. The most outlandish thing about the jacked prices on bananas are that the price is raised only so the school can make more money off of the students. The school is supposed to be promoting better living and lifestyle choices for its students, yet it charges more for a healthy banana than it does for the less healthy option of a cookie. How is it that the school community can afford to push start time back an hour and pay millions when it is unable to do something as simple as putting smart and affordable fruits on the menu? Bananas and cookies are only the threshold of this issue. The school has recently added many more soda machines and candy dispensers, while nutritious fruit and veggies are thrown away due to old age. Why not offer those day old healthy choices at reduced prices? If this was done, FCPS would earn back some of the money that is lost, waste would be reduced, and those inclined to a healthier lifestyle would have a real choice over the empty energy of the sugar filled treats currently on offer. The healthier, tastier choice is the smarter way to go.