Hot lunch is a part of Kaneland’s cafeteria that is extremely underestimated considering how much it includes: a main item, two fruit items, salad, other vegetables and a milk carton. For only $2.50, students can hit each main food group in a single meal.

Not only are the hot lunch meals healthy, but they touch on multiple cultures of food unlike al a carte’s variety: pizza, bosco sticks and the occasional cheeseburger.

For those people who reserve their lunch for a la carte items only, they could be spending extra money that could’ve been saved if they had bought hot lunch instead. The following short photo gallery shows a week of hot lunch food that is definitely worth a review.

Thanksgiving Lunch 

Rating: 5 out of 5 

How cool is it that our cafeteria staff makes a traditional holiday meal right in the comfort of Kaneland High School? This meal comes with mashed potatoes, freshly cooked turkey pieces and gravy smothered on top. The stuffing also has gravy on top and comes with a side of corn. I’d give the thanksgiving hot lunch five out of five stars for making any average school day feel like a holiday.

Meatball sandwich

Rating: 2 out of 5

Due to the dry meat and mushy fries, I’d give this sandwich only two out of five stars. The sandwich isn’t anything special. It comes with only mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce on top. The fries definitely don’t help this meal’s cause. They are far too soft for my liking, and seem slightly undercooked. If one was on the hunt for a decent meatball sandwich, I’d recommend them visiting Subway over the Kaneland cafeteria.

Chicken Bowl

Rating: 4 out of 5 

The chicken bowl is something new that Kaneland’s cafeteria has to offer and is personally one of my favorite hot lunch meals. It’s mashed potatoes with corn, cheese and fried chicken pieces on top. I’d have to give this unexpected mix a solid four out of five stars. Hopefully this new meal is one that sticks around.

Tacos

Gallery • 5 Photos

Photo By Taylor Eaves

Thanksgiving Lunch

Rating: 1 out of 5

Although the taco meal mixes-it-up from the average a la carte line, students might want to stick with the bosco sticks on this one. In this meal, they give far too much taco meat and not enough lettuce, tomatoes or other ingredients. The off-balance makes it seem as if one was sinking their teeth into bland taco meat with a flimsy tortilla around it. The rice doesn’t have too much zest for being so called “Mexican flavored”. I’d give this culturally flavor-lacking meal one out of five stars.

Teriyaki chicken

Rating: 3 out of 5

For being quite foreign for something found out of the cafeteria line, the teriyaki chicken meal was pretty good. It comes with chicken pieces covered in Teriyaki sauce with small spaghetti-like noodles. The fortune cookie was also a nice touch. I’d give this Chinese favorite three out of five stars for it’s variety of flavors and uniqueness.