Panera Bread Company, White Castle, Qdoba and Arby’s are just a few fast food chains where students grab a bite to eat.

 While these eateries are only available outside MHS walls, the Parkway School District offers them during school hours.

 Carmen Fischer, director of Child Nutrition Services for Rockwood, said that several factors contribute to what students are served during lunch hours.

 “We evaluate the nutritional content of the items available, look to see what’s popular at local restaurants, conduct focus groups with students to see what they like, listen to what my managers suggest, look at what other school districts are offering and what the industry has available,” Fischer said.

 Fischer provided several other justifications as to why MHS does not have the variety of fast food items other schools do, aside from nutritional content.

 “We want to offer reimbursable meals to all students and many of the fast foods items don’t fit into the Federal Regulation guidelines,” Fischer said.

 Fischer said there are many food safety hazards with making fast food restaurants a part of Rockwood’s lunch.

 “It’s difficult to transport many of the fast food items and maintain proper temperatures as required by the St. Louis County,” Fischer said.

 Fischer said that many of the items available from fast food vendors are costly and do not meet the minimal nutritional standards of Rockwood.

 Though these fast food restaurants do not meet Rockwood’s nutritional standards, Jessica Kettenbach, senior said the food currently served at MHS is no better.

 “Marquette has the worst lunch program out of any school I’ve been too,” Kettenbach said. “It’s fattening, either overcooked or undercooked and overall unappealing.”

 Kettenbach, who transferred from Saint Joseph’s Academy (SJA) during junior year, said SJA’s mediocre lunch program triumphed over MHS’s.

 “Saint Joe had a salad bar, at least,” Kettenbach said. “And if you didn’t like what was being served you could leave the school.”

 Marlene Pfeiffer, dietician and supervisor of Food Services at Parkway School District described the process her district uses.

 “We ask the companies to present their product we would be serving and the cost per unit,” Pfeiffer said. “We also ask for their most current Health Inspection.”

 Retrieving all this information does not guarantee the food will be served at Parkway schools.

 “We often pilot these products in one of our schools before involving the whole District,” Pfeiffer said.