At OHS, students are served lunch according to national and state public school standards. As most students would agree, some lunches are better than others, but one lunch day stands out over all-Pork Chop Day. The name is capitalized as it is basically an official holiday at OHS.

Pork Chop Day is always on the first Friday of the month. Students look forward to this day almost as much as they do the holiday season.

“I live for pork chop day-it’s the best day ever. I get three pork chops with a bunch of gravy,” senior Cody Quast said.

Now, one may ask, “What am I putting into my body on pork chop day?” Warning: if you choose to ignore the hard truth and want to continue to enjoy that sweet sweet pork chop, skip to the next paragraph. The pork chop patty itself is 310 calories. The ½ cup of mashed potatoes and the ¼ cup of gravy on the side have a total of 97 calories-which isn’t too bad. The whole grain buttermilk biscuit on the side has 100 calories, plus the amount of calories in the butter you add.

Authority Nutrition states the average person should eat between 1800 and 2000 calories a day to maintain their weight. If you were to eat everything on your tray on Pork Chop Day, you would be consuming about 550 calories, under half of the suggested daily intake. But if you choose to get a dollar deal, which will get you an additional pork chop, you would be taking in a lot more calories.

Upperclassmen sometimes try to use their seniority over the underclassmen to budge in line to get their tasty pork chop quicker.

Principal David Benson and Associate Principal Caryn Boyd stand by the two lunch lines to make sure students wait their turn and don’t budge. “We try our best every day,” Benson said.

Those who have dietary restrictions and don’t consume meat are out of luck on Pork Chop Day.  Since it is rare for a student to prefer anything else on Pork Chop Day, the salad bar is usually closed to accommodate the Pork Chop demand. For those who don’t like the pork chop, A La Carte is their only option for school supplied food.

“It’s funny because everyone tries to leave their classes early to get in line and sometimes I pretend that I am also super excited for porkchop day but then everyone remembers that I am a vegetarian and obviously am not going to eat a porkchop, so I head to A La Carte instead,” senior vegetarian Paige Condon said.