Hopkinton Makes 'Best School Food' List

A mystery pattie, 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.

The Hopkinton Public School System topped a recent list of the best cafeteria foods in Massachusetts Public Schools. Hopkinton came out number 41 in a list of 50, one which was topped by Cambridge High School. Hopkinton received a ranking of 3.5 out of 5.

Niche School District Rankings released the results of its survey, also published by WCVB, that rated schools’ food by a variety of methodology.

“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 the methodology and grading process.