It’s the middle of the day, at the start of lunch. Students enter in droves, some pushing through the line to get their food as fast as possible, others not even bothering to try. It’s a crowded, chaotic, and confusing mess. It even gets to the point where some students decide to opt out of visiting the lunchroom entirely, choosing to visit the library instead. With recent changes, however, students will be required to stay in the library until the bell rings. They also will be unable to enter the library after the first fifteen minutes of lunch. According to the head of the library, Mrs. Kizer, this was due to too many students causing trouble, and ruining the environment for their peers.
“Last year we had a couple lunches where we had like 50 or 60 students,” Kizer said. “We counted, because we were like ‘this is too many in here’.” According to Kizer, it has been much more manageable since the changes, averaging around 20-30 students at its peak.
One student, senior Sarah Phong, chooses to spend her entire free block in the library, rather than choosing a lunch to go to. She has various reasons for this, including better food at home, more opportunities for studying, and the lack of noise in the LMC.
“The lunchroom is a little too loud for my liking, like any time I go into there, I can hardly hear my own voice because of the tables around me,” she said. “And I have to study for my AP class.”
As for lunchtime itself, many students and their parents have been caught off guard by the changes involving free and reduced lunches. Kelli Bryant, one of the cashiers in the lunchroom, is very vocal about her gripes involving the decision to cut funding for free lunches.
“It’s an important issue; food is an important issue because it fuels your body,” she said. “And these kids come in, and they haven’t eaten since the day before. It’s important for them to have a good meal.”
For some students, free meals are a convenience. For others, they’re a necessity. Some parents may not be able to give up the significant amount of money required to pay for lunch. Currently, the cost is $3.15 per meal, and students are, as of now, being given a grace period. This is so that they can sign up for free or reduced meals, while paying back the money they owe at a later time. Even then, many students feel that this isn’t enough. One of these students is junior Alexis Cooper.
“There are some families out there who cannot afford the money to pay for their own child to have lunches at school, and the entire idea of having to sign up and really like, prove that you cannot pay for your child’s lunch; at times it can seem embarrassing for some parents,” she said.
On the bright side, freshmen seem to be enjoying the lunch room and its environment. “The environment and like, the vibe and everything from the lunchroom is very uplifting,” said freshman Ace Anaya. It’s good to know that during a possibly anxiety-inducing time in their high school career, our freshmen feel good about the lunch experience.
Right now, we can only speculate on how this year will go, and how the culture surrounding the lunchroom will evolve.
