Where Did Chelmsford Place on 'Best School Food' List?

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A mystery patty, a ball of sticky white rice and a pile of canned green beans, capped by a bowl of something called “strawberry whip” and a carton of whole milk.

It was one of the typical meals long served across the country in school cafeterias. The approach, and laws, are changing surrounding meals in public schools, and the offerings have evolved vastly.

Niche School District Rankings recently released the results of its survey ranking school food by a variety of methodologies.

The Chelmsford Public Schools made the list, ranked 100th in MA for Best Food.

Of 21 respondents to the survey of parents and students, Chelmsford ranked 3.1 out of 5. School food expenses per student in Chelmsford are $13,213, according to the report.

Cambridge Public Schools topped the list.

“ The Best Food ranking provides a comprehensive assessment of the quality of the food at school districts in the United States and Puerto Rico. It uses data sourced from various government and public data sets, Niche’s own proprietary data, and 582,363 opinion-based survey responses about food from 216,990 current students, recent alumni, and parents.”

High rankings indicate that the students are happy with the quality and variety of food options and that the administration is invested in students.

Niche ranked assessments by 13,402 school districts. It considered factors such as parent and student survey responses, expenses divided by total of students and education statistics from the U.S. Department of Education. The districts were ranked between 0-5.

Read more about Niche’s methodology and grading process in its Best School Food rankings and see who else made the list >>>