Liam Carruthers had been looking forward to lunches at Buns, the popular hamburger restaurant on Franklin Street, his senior year. Even though the school’s lunch period is normally just 45 minutes, Carruthers figured he’d have just enough time to get take-out and then eat before his fifth-period class started.
Thanks to the persistence of the pandemic and the school’s new lunch plan to ensure student safety, Carruthers’s vision of a cheeseburger for lunch has been replaced with stale pizza and warm milk.
“I don’t really understand why we can’t go off campus for lunch given masks are required everywhere in town,” he said.
The new lunch policy divides students in fourth period—which runs from 11:38-1:18—into five different lunch groups. Each group has 15 minutes to eat outside and an additional 15 minutes of socialization. This year, too, every student is offered a free lunch.
When the weather cooperates, students sit outside while maintaining three feet in distance; in the event of rain or severe weather, students must sit in their classrooms or in the hallway and keep six feet apart.
“For the indoor plan, I don’t like the whole gym versus cafeteria thing, where if you’re eating a home lunch you have to go in the gym, and, if you’re eating a school lunch, you eat in the cafeteria,” sophomore Caroline Munsell said. “I understand why it exists, but I feel like it’s kind of annoying because I already don’t eat lunch with my friends, and then the few people that I do eat with are in a different room than me.”
Assistant principal Anna Hipps stated that the school’s lunch plan came about after district officials consulted with doctors and scientists about the measures that should be taken to keep everyone safe.
Many students—especially seniors—dislike the new lunch plan, saying they feel rushed moving from the classroom to their eating location or that they aren’t able to socialize with their friends.
“I’m okay with having us eat in smaller groups on campus, but too much time is spent walking to and from where we eat,” Carruthers said, “I think it’d be a lot easier if we just let everyone eat in the classroom or hallways.”
One of the rites of passage for seniors had been getting to leave campus for lunch, a tradition that the pandemic has put on hold.
“I’m really disappointed because I was looking forward to [going off campus] all throughout high school,” senior Olivia Warner said. “I think it would also be better to allow seniors to go off campus since there would be less people at school during that time.”
Teachers also have their opinions on the new lunch schedule.
“I think that it’s the safest way for us to all eat lunch, and I think that’s the most important part,” English teacher Nikel Bussolati said.
Social studies Patrick Roeber, though, pointed out that the break in instruction that often occurs during fourth period can be a drawback.
“It’s really hard to have a class that is split up into two parts,” Roeber said. “What’s going to happen when my class has to take a unit test, and, in the middle of it, they’re allowed to leave for lunch and go look up the answers?”
The school board hopes to reevaluate the lunch plan at the end of the quarter and make changes as necessary, including what will happen when temperatures begin to drop and it becomes too cold to eat outside comfortably.
“The school district is planning to discuss our lunch plan very soon as we approach quarter two,” Hipps said. “They will definitely be taking weather into account.”
