Administration is exploring the idea of one lunch rather than two next year, in part due to changes in the school calendar and daily schedule.I personally think that this could result in a lot of complications. The current length for lunch is 36 minutes. With such a small amount of time, it can be difficult for students to have plenty of time to get their lunch and eat it without being rushed. In hopes of a longer lunch, it may be possible for one lunch to succeed. Many students do go out for lunch but not as many that stay at school for lunch. In my freshman year, I can recall the lunch line going all the way down by the gym at times because a lot of students were staying for lunch. The upper classes were bigger compared to now but I’ve come to notice that their freshman classes are rising as well.
The freshman class usually isn’t allowed to go out for lunch. Another idea proposed by Principal Cole Maxwell was that freshmen would be able to leave campus for lunch. As a senior who wasn’t allowed to go out for lunch as a freshman, I oppose this idea. His reasoning was because freshmen tend to have much more energy than the other grade. Mr. Maxwell saw a couple of freshmen playing tag in the hallway which was very disruptive, if freshmen can go off campus then he believes they could release that energy elsewhere.“It would be nice to be able to go out to lunch with my friends and get food other than school lunch,” said freshman Dawson Wood, who was in favor of the idea of freshmen being allowed to leave campus. Allowing them to go outside and release some energy would bring some peace to the lunch room. Even if freshmen were going to be able to leave for lunch, I still think it wouldn’t make much of a difference on how crowded the lunch room would be or other populated areas like the pods.
Not only will a single lunch be affecting the students but also the people who work in the kitchen. The kitchen is all for the idea of having just one lunch but they just have one complication that outstands everything: the seating. Lead cook Joe Colvin believes that not everyone who would eat at school would have enough room or even a chair to sit. They know for sure that they could have lunch all ready for the one single lunch but seating was their only big problem.
There are few freshmen who can drive to leave campus for lunch anyway. “Each year the freshman class seems to get bigger and bigger. I don’t think one lunch for everyone would be a smart choice,” said senior Kylie Birge.
Another issue that could arise with one lunch is the seating in the lunchroom. In the lunchroom I often see groups of friends sitting together around one table, and a lot of the time the table is crowded. If everyone were to have the same lunch then the groups of tables would be more crowded with friends now all being able to have one lunch. Because eating inside the pods was taken away from students due to lack of being respectful and clean, now everyone will be forced to eat their lunch in the lunchroom. As a person who likes their space and quiet while eating, I know that this would be hard to find in a packed lunch room.