Opinion: Lunch change not for the better
PHOTO Lily Turkowski
September 21, 2022
In the past years at FHS, there have historically been three lunch periods during the school day. This year, the school cut it down to two lunch periods. This sudden change has caused controversy to rise throughout the school. Should the school have kept the three lunch hours per day or was it better for them to switch to two?
For most students, lunch time has been seen as a period of time to catch a break, eat and relax until returning to their classes for the rest of the day. Now that there are only two lunch periods during the day instead of three, lunch has become a more stressful time. Students now are stuck worrying about whether they will be able to sit in their “designated spot” with their friends every day or if it will be too crowded to fit everyone in.
With the dropping of a lunch period, the cafeteria feels crowded and noisy to students. Because of this, students have been seen eating lunch in the halls and outside, which has also caused the environment to become less sanitary. There has been food abandoned on the floor outside and in the hallways of the school, which could also factor into a student potentially being harmed or injured.
According to Assistant Principal Zach Bradley, when comparing the number of students per lunch period, the total for last year comes out to be 396 students in the first lunch, 304 students in second lunch and 378 students in third period. This year, the total comes out to be 565 students in the first lunch and 567 students in the second lunch. These numbers also include students who are enrolled in the Deep program and Genesee Career Institute. Even though some of the students may not be in the actual lunch room in each period, it is still a large group of students to have in a small, encompassed area at a time. On average, this is an increase of just over 57 percent in this year’s lunches.
Students have mixed feelings regarding this change in lunches and whether or not two lunches was the right course of action. However, when staff were asked about the debate, they had a different perspective.
“So far, two lunches has been better because of the fact that we have half an hour in between lunch periods,” noon aide and hall monitor Amy Moore said. “It gives the lunch ladies more time to prepare for the next lunch period.”
Although some of the staff and students throughout the school may prefer having the two lunches, having the three lunch periods would still be a better option. In exchange for more time between lunch periods, students shouldn’t have to worry about finding somewhere to sit or pushing their way up the lunch line in order to have enough time to eat before lunch ends.
