Students grapple with longer lunch lines

After the bell rings, all of campus rushes towards the cafeteria to not get stuck in the enormous lunch lines.

As the lines become increasingly chaotic, it is visible that the efforts to speed up the process have proven futile. Students point to multiple causes, ranging from the new ID system to lunch being too short.

The 2022-2023 year's bell schedule not only changed class lengths, but also the length of passing periods. Compared to last year's schedule, students still have 40 minutes of lunch, but passing period is 3 minutes shorter than last year. While a 3 minute difference may seem miniscule, it actually makes a difference in how far students could travel for food.

Students wait in the lunch line in front of the cafeteria. Photo by Jacob Benaquista.

“I think it’s too short, especially when you’re like walking off campus and you come back…there’s not a lot of places close to eat,” Senior Julia Elizabeth Allen explains. “At least an hour, at least, even a little bit more than last year would be enough time for lunch."

Almost 85% of the 260 students surveyed said that there is not enough time during lunch to get food elsewhere on the island if they do not have a vehicle. The length of lunch is a major issue for students that regularly go off campus to get food, and has even become a problem for those who stay on campus.

After the introduction of ID systems to stop students from getting multiple lunches, there has been a steep increase in time spent waiting in line. Over half of students surveyed agree that the new system has made waiting in line much longer compared to last year.

“On October 7th, I invited the head of nutrition services to observe and give feedback on our lengthy lunch line," Principal Kirstin Snyder said. "He timed our line and found we get through the line of about 360 kids in 19 minutes. Although it may feel long for our students, we get through the line very quickly compared to when you had to pay for food…We talked about ways to shave off another 5 minutes, if possible, and are working towards this goal.”

However, most students don’t feel this way. When asked about the topic, a junior who wished to remain anonymous said that, “I feel like we could discontinue the student ID system and/or have multiple areas to pick up food from rather than one … [which] can dissipate the line.” Many of the common responses to this topic consisted of creating another line, removing the ID system, or make lunch longer to compensate for the wait. Waiting in the line takes close to 20 minutes, which is already half of the time given for lunch.

Not only has the ID system led to longer waits, but there is an increase of people cutting the lines compared to years prior. Even with the addition of the line supervisors, more than half of students surveyed think that the amount of students cutting the line is the same as or even more than last year.

“I feel like if [they] reopened the snack bar for people to buy snacks it would divert traffic away from the lunch line at the beginning of the period," suggested a junior who would like to remain anonymous. The idea of reopening the snack bar was brought up by many who responded to the survey, under the impression that opening the snack bar would give some students another lunch option.

Max Millot contributed to this article