Some of the meals they serve us at Live Oak Elementary School, where I’m a fourth-grader, are kind of simple, like bagels with cream cheese, which they serve us almost every day, sometimes with apples (like in the picture below).
My favorite foods at school all start with the letter “P.” I like the pizza, of course, because pizza is my favorite food, and the pizza at Live Oak is pretty good quality and has enough cheese.
I also like the pesto pasta, especially the pesto part; I used to make pesto at home when I was eight with basil I picked in our garden, olive oil and parmesan cheese, and some nuts, I think maybe walnuts. It was pretty good. To me it tasted better when I made it myself.
My other favorite food at school is the bean-and-cheese pupusas, the national food of El Salvador. See, all those foods start with the letter “P.”
The staff at Live Oak try really hard to give us healthy food. “All meals come with organic 1 percent milk or nonfat milk, fresh fruit & vegetables,” according to the school website. They also make sure to do fun things like having “Chocolate Milk Day!” and “Cookie Day” (my favorite) and “Chips & Salsa Day!” and “Fortune Cookie Day” (when they also serve Chicken Potstickers and Veggie Fried Rice with Egg). Cheesy Bread Sticks are also fun. I like to make cheesy bread for myself at home.
But don’t even talk to me about the corn dogs. A lot of kids like the corn dogs, but I tried them back in second grade and have never had one again. Not my thing. I don’t like corn dogs in general. On Tuesdays we usually have Orange Chicken With Rice, which is also not my favorite.
My little sister Anaïs, who is in third grade, doesn’t like the pasta alfredo–she says the noodles are pretty good, but she doesn’t like the cheese. At home our favorite cheese is gruyere, which we usually buy at Costco.
My favorite snacks are the maple waffles, the Cinnamon Swirl Bread, and the chocolate muffins (like in the other picture below).
Thursday is the day for Seasonal Chocolate Beet Muffins. They might sound gross, but actually they are really good. So are the pumpkin muffins–and the parfaits, which have yogurt and granola and fruit, like peach or nectarine, which is my favorite.
I have no complaints about the food at Live Oak Elementary, but I have some suggestions for food I’d like to have more. Here in this area, they grow a lot of beautiful strawberries, and every once in a while at school we have some strawberries. I wish we had them more often.
And maybe mango now and then. I’m glad they have pineapple guava from the garden at school sometimes–we have a tree at home that grows them, but we never seem to get enough.
Coco Kettmann is a fourth grader at Live Oak Elementary School, who loves drawing and painting, sleepovers with her friends and Taylor Swift.
