Medford High students use Facebook to threaten cafeteria food boycott

"We are fighting for multiple reasons, the greatest of which is the right to a safe and healthy lunch," Bears wrote. "The lunches now are unhealthy and are unsafe for the students that purchase them. It is unfair that the school system is allowed to sell food to the students that includes meat that [supermarkets] are not permitted to sell due to FDA restrictions."

In fact, Belson said in a phone interview, federal law requires the district to take more precautions than commercial markets when preparing and serving food, meaning lunch menu selections have less sodium, less fat, and fewer additives than the same items at the grocery store.

And, he said, the menu offers no fried food, no snack-cakes or other unhealthy desserts, and very few processed meats. For $2.85, students get their choice of a pizza, salad, hot entree, or sandwich - as well as a fruit and vegetable, whereas students had to choose one or the other in prior years.

Furthermore, school officials have solicited student feedback on the menu and hired a former Fidelity executive chef to oversee the new wellness policy, Belson said.

He added that he's asked Medford High Headmaster Paul Krueger to speak with Bears about the post, since it may have incited fear without any documentation.

"That's like saying there's a bomb in the high school," Belson said, noting that Bears backed away from the term "unsafe" in later posts.

Bears also told the chat room that the boycotters want continued access to Cafe Electra, an offshoot of a culinary arts program at Medford Vocational Technical High School that sells food to the public.

"[It] is the general consensus that 'Cafe Electra' is the only food service offered by the school that recognizes the students rights for a healthy meal," he wrote.

Belson said that while he lauds the culinary arts program, the students have never had permission to sell their food to classmates, since they would "compete with a federally subsidized [lunch] program," a violation of applicable laws.

"If someone slipped by, then we'll deal with that internally," he said.

A student who declined to be named said classmates have freely entered Cafe Electra through a door connected to the cafeteria, buying food items for $5.

"No one stopped it," the student said. "Everyone knew it was happening."

But is the boycott really happening? Belson expressed skepticism.

"I think the average kid wants to eat lunch," he said.

One student echoed the sentiments of many on the Boycott the Medford High School Lunches page on Facebook.

"[H]ahaaa," the student wrote. "[I'm] bringin a lunch for the first time in years. [T]his should be good."

Leaving school early Wednesday for the Thanksgiving break, students gave mixed reviews to the school lunch menu.

Freshman Steve Mahoney said he'll participate in the boycott, and though he usually brings his own lunch, he's tried the cafeteria pizza.

"It's not bad," he said.

But sophomores Kimberly Armao, Tayla Martin, and Dani O'Hare trashed the food, repeatedly calling it "nasty." All three said they'd join the cafeteria crusade.

Other students knew nothing about the boycott, including sophomore Elizabeth Westin.

"I didn't know we had one," she said.