If you purchase lunch through the school, you’ve probably noticed a change to the menu: the soft drink fountains were removed from the cafeteria and the Mustang Grill.

During the 2014-2015 school year, the cafeteria introduced soft drinks that were included with the standard lunch meal, giving the drinks a new taste and allowing students on the free or reduced lunch program more options in their food.

I absolutely adored the addition of the drink fountains. They provided multiple great options for beverages in addition to the variety of milk already offered. Many students enjoyed the choices such as Gatorade, lemonade and various Diet Coke products.

The decision to remove the pop fountains was a misstep and should be reconsidered.

Many students have said that soft drinks were nice, they didn’t cost much and that with cheap refills, lunch was just that much better. Also, the drinks offered a bit of variety to beverages. Having chocolate milk every day may become repetitive to some people, so to be able to grab a sweet Diet Coke or a Minute Maid lemonade made the experience more enjoyable.

Of course, the school did not remove them just as an insult to the students. There were a few reasons given to as why they were discontinued. District 99 Foods Manager Jennifer Croasdale had some input on the main reason the drink machines were removed.

“The fountain machines were removed because there is a theft issue at both Downers North and Downers South High School. Several students would take a cup and drink the beverage and leave the empty cup on the station they were waiting in line to get food. Students would use the fountain machines as cover to steal a la carte items. Students were eating their meal in front of the fountain machine and leaving the empty tray under the fountain machine.” Croasdale said.

However, if theft was the biggest issue with the drink machines, wouldn’t the inclusion of the new security guards be able to reduce that? Stationing two security guards near the lunch lines with a clear view of the soda machines would reduce the amount of students who would try to steal or eat food behind the cover of the large soda machines. Also, relocating the fountains to either wall around where the large refrigerators are could also help as to giving the lunch attendants a better view of the machines.

I heavily supported the fountain drinks, especially for students on financial aid. For the students who relied on reduced lunch programs to get a meal at school, they highly appreciated having this nice option on the menu. Watching as more affluent friends unpacked Gatorades and Cokes, students found it nice that they would not be excluded from having a nice tasty beverage.

The soft drink fountains are gone for now, but I seriously think the school should reinstall them because they made lunch better, gave the school lunches variety and allowed children on lunch assistance to join in on the soda fun.