Cafeteria woes become wow! Oakdale, Urbana pilot burrito bowls
Burrito Bowl in Urbana High School
Would you rather have burritos or a traditional school lunch? Students at Oakdale High School and Urbana High School make that not-so-difficult choice every day. This school year two high schools in Frederick County are piloting Burrito Bowls as an option for school lunch.
For $2.50 the burritos come in two styles: regular wrap or burrito bowl. A burrito bowl is all of the ingredients selected by the student put into a bowl and eaten with a fork. The options for burrito ingredients include chicken, Mexican rice or plain white rice, corn, peppers, onions, salsa, tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole, and shredded cheddar cheese.
Similar to the Chipotle or Qdoba cafeteria style, the student walks down the line of options to put in the burrito and the cafeteria staff add the ingredients the student likes into a burrito or burrito bowl. This guarantees that the food remains sanitary.
“It seems to be a big success at my school. Students are choosing not to bring a lunch to buy the burritos. Since it’s such a big success at Urbana, I bet it will spread to all of the other schools in the county easily. Also, it’s a very sustainable lunch because of all the options you can put in the burrito,” said Jake Muller, a student at Urbana High School.
Not only are the burritos delicious, they meet the same USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) regulations as regular school lunches.
“We have had a very positive response from both schools. Lunch participation has increased about 25% at Urbana High School,” said Frederick County Food Service Manager Robert Kelly.
“Frederick County Food and Nutrition Department and are implementing a plan to spread the burrito bowls to other schools in Frederick County,” said Kelly.
Because of the high demand, the burrito line goes slower than the classic school lunch line.
“Moving the students through the line in a timely manner is a challenge, because of all the choices we offer. The students only have so much time for lunch. We have increased staffing levels to accommodate,” said Kelly.
The burrito bowls will spread to other schools in the county in the near future.
Urbana High School Burrito line.
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