Yummy or Yucky? Palo Alto Kids Vote for Their Lunch

A lot of hungry Palo Alto children had the opportunity to taste their new lunch menu at a special event Friday.

Hosted by the Palo Alto Unified school District, this tasting day presented a sampling of the 20 new food items on the elementary school menu. Between 1,200 and 1,500 kids will now have options like California rolls and pepperoni calzones at lunch.

According to Tabitha Kappeler-Hurley, a spokeswoman for PAUSD, the district will raise the cost of lunch by 25 cents at middle school and 50 cents at elementary school levels.

"We've been working on this for about 18 months and we are so excited that things are moving forward," said Rebecca Scholl, a parent of three PAUSD students, who sat on the parent committee to change the previous menu. "Today we had an amazing turnout. At an hour before closing, we are almost out of food."

At the tasting, if kids liked a food item they voted by putting a marble in a green bowl. If they didn't the marble went in the red bowl.

According to Scholl, there has been a huge silent community of parents that had decided to opt out of the hot lunch because of the choices offered. This could change that.

"Kids are voting green for some of the healthy items like the black bean and sweet potato salad," she said. "It's encouraging that the parents brought out the real voters, the kids."