Having fulfilling meals is vital to maintaining one’s health, focus, and energy throughout the day. A teenager’s body is constantly growing and requires more food than an adult’s body to supplement health. However, the mere 30 minutes we are given for lunch is not enough to finish our food, and extending this is necessary for all students to be able to eat.
Some people may argue that 30 minutes is plenty of time to finish a meal, and although this may be true for eating at home where there are no hindrances or delays, MHS has around 3,000 students, many of whom regularly get school lunches. Our vast student population leads to longer, slower lunch lines, causing many students to spend most of lunchtime waiting in lines.
Additionally, because of how populated our school is, most lunch tables are full, making it harder for students to find a place to sit and eat. This ultimately causes a significant duration of our lunch break to be spent before many students get to eat.
Moreover, students who host club meetings tend to hold off on eating lunch as they must lead presentations and bonding activities, leaving only a few minutes of lunchtime to eat. However, different teachers’ classroom expectations and policies vary, meaning that many students are unable to eat lunch at all during the school day if teachers do not allow them to eat lunch during class.
In classrooms where students are allowed to eat food, some can be seen bringing in unfinished lunches due to not having enough time. Having to eat in class during lessons and classwork time unfairly disrupts a student’s learning experience, forcing them to either multitask or hold off tasks to finish eating.
On the other hand, in classrooms where eating is prohibited, students who are unable to finish their meal before class time must endure their persistent hunger. As a result, their attention may be diverted, impeding their concentration in class.
Therefore, instilling a longer lunch break would promote a more focused academic environment.
In comparison, some high schools in the Bay Area have longer lunch breaks. According to the bell schedules on the Cupertino High School (CHS) and Los Altos High School (LAHS) websites, lunch is 40 minutes every day at CHS while LAHS students have 40 minutes of lunch every day except Mondays.
This would be the ideal amount of time to have for lunch at our school and can be achieved by simply cutting down just one to two minutes of each class and redirecting these minutes to our lunchtime. The amount of time that would be cut from classes is minuscule, yet would make all the difference in our lunch breaks.
Essentially, by extending our lunch break, students are able to remain focused and energized throughout the day as they receive the proper amount of nutrients from their meals. With our current schedule, this is often not possible for some individuals and we request adjustments to benefit our student population.