Students don’t feel as encouraged to eat healthy after district’s new attempt

The Austin Independent School (AISD) “Nacho Average Food Truck” has been a new addition to lunch options here at Bowie.

The truck visits different schools in the district daily and continues to make its way to Bowie’s campus on a weekly basis.

The food truck has continued to attract students and faculty since its first appearance on campus.

The price of the localized food is affordable and costs the same as it would in the cafeteria.

The truck itself is run by AISD staff and food is served under the culinary standards set for all schools, making the food very similar to that of the cafeteria.

Lifetime is a huge sponsor in partnership with AISD to fund the truck and promote a healthy lifestyle towards the educational community.

The food that is served is prepared within the truck features items like tacos and burgers which are reimbursable and claim to be unique from the food served within the cafeteria

The food itself is locally grown from various businesses around Austin making the food taste fresher and crisper.

Although I do enjoy the food served from the new food truck, I do not believe that it gets me excited about healthy eating.

For example, burgers and tacos, although they taste amazing (and appeal to high schoolers), are not the healthiest food options that can be eaten every day.

Comparing this food truck to others around Austin, it is very beneficial towards students through affordable and relatively healthy options.

While, AISD is definitely not up to the standards of most specialty food trucks here in Austin, you do get what you pay for and something a little different then the norm.

The food truck is great but the quality of the product as well as the experience doesn’t compare to the more famous food trucks around the Austin area.

The big question is, should it stay?

The food truck is unnecessary and the funds to run the truck could be put towards something else.

The money used to buy and continue to maintain the truck could be used towards small improvements to several schools in the district, and in Bowie’s case it is much needed.

In order to continue to glamorize the food in the cafeteria, the culinary staff of individual schools should be responsible for making the food more enticing.

It is a very cool thing that the truck offers students benefits, but I do not believe that it impacts students enough to make a huge difference.