I’m gonna keep it short and sweet because it hurts me to have the thought lingering in my mind: October was a rough month for Lowell High School.

The quality of the school meals took a very stark decline over the course of October. It started with the General Tso chicken which, while clearly intended to go places within the high school culinary world, was ruined solely by far too much salt. A standard Lowell High favorite was ruined with this attempted to revamp of the meal. Even after the distasteful experience of the chicken, I was still optimistic, hoping that the school’s offerings would improve in the coming weeks.

It hurts me to say I was wrong.

After several days of decent taco nachos as the special of the day, beef chili bowls were served. The beef chili bowl was easily the greatest disappointment I’ve ever seen leave a Lowell High School kitchen. The presentation of the meal was horrendous, the blend of flavors was nonexistent, and after two minutes the meal devolved into a messy broth of indistinguishable ingredients. For the first time since I’ve embarked on this journey to document the school’s meal offerings, I could not bring myself to eat any of this meal past the first three bites.

I can’t help but wonder what blunder could have led the school meal quality to take a sharp turn for the worse after a very successful run in September. For now, all there is to do is wait in excitement for November’s offerings, since there’s nowhere to go but up after October.