Lunchtime in Lightridge has recently had a problem with the amount of students. The student count is far above the capacity of the cafeteria, forcing many students to sit on the floor along the hallways.
This crowding problem comes with the new schedule. Previously, there were four lunches, divided based on what your second or sixth block class was. Now, there are only two lunches, and they are not equally divided. On Mondays and Tuesdays, lunches are divided by class, with seniors and juniors sharing a lunch while sophomores and freshmen share a lunch. However, the largest inequality occurs on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, where lunch is split based on the student’s choice of flex. The problem with that is many students prefer to have lunch first, therefore a huge crowd arises in the first lunch period.
“The first shift [on club days] is very busy,” says Asma Khan, the school nutrition manager. “More than half of the students come in the first shift, so the second shift is easier.”
Another issue that comes with the large crowd is the lines it creates. With only 2 lunch lines, hundreds of hungry students flock to the line to try to get their lunch as quickly as possible, causing congestion in the cafeteria. The lines to the microwave are also long. Many students take a long time to heat up their food, making the line move slowly. Some students looking to heat up their food have to settle for a cold meal, as they may not have the chance to even get to a microwave within the time students are given for lunch.
Spaces to eat lunch only became more limited, a policy was placed that prevents students from bringing food to the library.
“Our busiest days during flex are Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.” says school librarian, Jenna Lombardo. “There were a lot of situations where students were sitting on each others’ laps, or there were 3 chairs at the side of the table.” Now, students that regularly chose to eat in the library had to move, only to see that seats outside of the library were limited.
Students choose to eat at new spots such as the lobby, PE hallway writing center, outside and near the auditorium. Tables placed outside of the cafeteria to accommodate new student influx are still not sufficient enough to seat every student.
“I think they need to split the amount of students in the first and second lunch more evenly, the first lunch just has too many students”. Says senior Monica Krakowiak. “Oftentimes I struggle to find seating in the cafeteria”.
