Here at Orchard Park High School, students complain about our lunch periods and compare them to other schools. While talking during our lunch period, a friend of mine said she wishes lunches were longer. So it got me thinking: We have about 20 minutes for lunch. That includes finding a table, waiting in line to get lunch, eating, and socializing.
Students should be able to have lunch without stressing about how much time they have to actually get it, eat it, and take care of their trash. It is all too stressful and an unrealistic expectation for students to eat a balanced meal within such a short amount of time. Some students don’t even eat lunch because they’re afraid they won’t have enough time to even consume it. Not only is this wrong and unhealthy, but it’s concerning that just the amount of time in a lunch period can affect students’ health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has noted that “a 30-minute lunch period provides 20 minutes of seat-time for eating, which is recommended.” So why do we only have 20 minutes?
Freshman Kara Mock said, “It doesn’t make sense how in middle school and elementary school, we get at least 30 minutes, and in high school, we get 20 minutes, and we spend the majority of our time getting lunch.” She says that “especially with the free lunches now, everyone is getting a free lunch. So by the time you get your food, you have barely five minutes to eat it.”
Mock also talks about how she doesn’t feel like there is enough time to eat while socializing and even making it on time to receive lunch.
“I’m coming from the opposite end of the building, so I don’t have enough time to get to lunch early. So by the time I get there, the line is already long. Lunch is also a time I get to hang out with friends I don’t have classes with, so with long lunch lines and short lunch periods, it makes it hard to have time to talk.”
You may be wondering, what about the people who bring lunch? They don’t have to wait in the long line of students to receive lunch, sure, but is 20 minutes really enough time to eat and socialize? What if they sit with friends who go to get lunch every day? Sitting in silence, eating lunch alone with no one to socialize with isn’t healthy for students’ mental health when being isolated. We need our school community to help work out the problem.
Not only do students try to utilize their lunch time by eating and socializing, but students also need that time to do their work. Some students don’t have study halls and have a very busy day after school to the point where they won’t have time to even open a textbook or write a simple sentence for a homework assignment.
Things like sports, appointments, and other events outside of school also cut into our time in the day. We students have other activities outside of school without any time to do lots of homework due the next day. So what do we do when we don’t have study halls either? We do it during our lunch period, which is supposed to provide students a break from the workload and relax for a bit, re-energize with some fuel and focus within the next few periods throughout the second half of the day.
Junior Anna Jones spoke about how lunch is supposed to be a time to relax and recollect yourself after a stressful half of the day, but expressed how it’s even more stressful when there isn’t enough time.
“We can’t socialize and focus in class, so when we get to lunch and are able to speak with our friends and wind down, we should at least have half an hour minimum.”
“I think that 20 minutes is hardly enough time for lunch if we want to be able to communicate with our friends,” agreed Sophomore Kira Weber
Jones also said, “We should at least have half an hour minimum,” which, as mentioned before, the CDC also highly recommends, so why have we cut ours 10 minutes shorter?
Weber also had some thoughts on how the lunch program works, as well, and an idea on how to improve it without extending the school hours. Weber suggested that perhaps shortening our class periods by two minutes and adding that to our lunch, then maybe we’d have enough time without having to extend the school day. However, New York State requires school districts to have a required number of minutes for each class per week, so this idea wouldn’t meet the State’s requirements.
Perhaps we could go back to our original bell schedule when lunches were their own period. The schedule now has 8 periods in a day, plus lunch. However, we used to have 8 periods in a day, with lunch being its own period. Maybe if we go back to that system, it would be more efficient for the students and possibly some of the teachers around the building as well.
The majority of students agree that we need more time for lunch. What our school needs is to listen to the majority and provide a solution.
