A Call for Longer Lunches

Pearce Richer '19, Staff Writer

Most days of the week, I walk into the lunchroom just in time for grace. But as soon as grace ends, there suddenly appears a gargantuan line with people who would like other food options than the ones on the tables. Often times I find myself scrambling into the line so that I do not end up very far back. Sometimes it can take as much as ten minutes just to get to the front of the line. Okay, maybe I am exaggerating, but it feels that long. But the problem is not how long the line is, the problem is the duration of the two lunch periods.

Generally after walking away from the line with food finally on my plate, I have roughly ten to fifteen minutes to stuff myself with food, along with having a conversation with my sponsor and my classmates. Lunches are half an hour each, but if you deduct about ten minutes for getting food and cleaning the tables, lunch is significantly shorter. The half hour that the lunches last is misleading because no one actually gets a full half hour to eat, rather, you get a fraction of that time to wolf down your food before returning to class or working on an assignment.

I do not remember the last time that I left lunch thinking, “wow, I have no more room for food.” Most of the time, the people who sufficiently feed themselves during lunch are those who cut the line in an inconsiderate manner. Lunch is meant to be a time of rest while eating food the only time in the school day, but it is not spent this way because of its shortness. For me, lunch is not a pleasant time, but instead it is a time where I rush to get something done during first lunch then use my little time during second lunch to eat.

There is quite literally only one solution to this problem, which is to lengthen both lunch periods. Whether it means sacrificing break, shortening extensions, or reducing class time, it is something that must happen. I know that I am speaking for many other kids when I say that lunch must be longer. It is a problem that is experienced by US students sometime in their high school careers. Not only do students feel the stress to rush down to lunch everyday then leave twenty minutes later, but also so do the teachers. It is scientifically proven that these shorter lunch periods combined with longer lines provide for inadequate nourishment of most students. In order to feed the students better and to provide less stress on them, it is imperative that lunches extend to longer times.