In the SCHS cafeteria, for $3 a meal, students are allowed to pick an entree, vegetables, fruit and a beverage. While the entrees, veggies and fruits change daily, the beverage choices are basically the same everyday: low fat milk, fat free milk, chocolate milk, and on rare occasions, strawberry milk.

In short, the only beverages our cafeteria serves are different kinds of cow’s milk. The SCHS cafeteria should have a variety of beverages at lunch, or at least bottled water.

Many students can’t drink milk because they are allergic to it or are lactose intolerant. Every day when they buy a school lunch, they are forced to eat without a beverage. Vegan students who eat school lunches also aren’t able to drink milk. If another option was available to them, such as water, they would be able to have a complete meal during lunch.

Since the SBO and some teachers sell bottled water, and students have access to free water via the water fountains, the SCHS cafeteria may think it’s not necessary to offer bottled water as a beverage choice for students during lunch.

However, 35 minutes each lunch period isn’t a convenient amount of time for students to get through the cafeteria line for food, and then to the main building for water before they can sit down and eat. If the cafeteria had water bottles, students would only need to get through the cafeteria line.

The SCHS cafeteria serving water in addition to milk would encourage students to drink more water, thus keeping them hydrated. Water not only fits basic school meal guidelines, it is also fat-free and healthy, and more students are able to drink water than milk.

So here’s a question for the cafeteria: Got water?

This is strictly the opinion of Nancy Do of The Roar staff.