We all know the infamous Granada Hills Charter (GHC) lunch lines: crowded, hot, and long. Following that you have to get through a crowd of people to find a spot to sit that hasn’t already been taken. Most students just accept that this is the way it is, but what if there were an alternative option? What if Granada were to implement a multiple lunch period system?
GHC has carts placed around the school to give students an alternative to the cafeteria line, however those locations do not give enough options for such a large school population. The carts also do not offer the selection that the cafeteria does including: pizza, burgers, sandwiches, a salad bar, as well as daily specials.
Waiting in the cafeteria’s long lines is often an uncomfortable experience due to the sheer number of people. For students who have to eat the food provided by school everyday, this is especially burdensome.
“I have been pushed around in the lunch line,” freshman Allegra May said. “There are kids cutting, and it’s crowded which makes it a struggle getting lunch.”
The lunch lines aren’t the only problem, however. Finding spots to sit and enjoy your lunch can be difficult with limited seating despite the new outdoor furniture the school purchased in the last few years. Every year, with a new batch of freshmen every year, there is also a chance that your go-to spot from last year has been claimed by another group. This leaves some students forced to walk and roam the hallways instead of sitting down and enjoying their lunch.
Other than the eight minutes at nutrition, lunch is the only time you get to socialize and interact with your friends. The lunch lines take up a good portion of your lunch time making the short time you have for yourself cut short.
The solution seems clear. If we were to have multiple lunch periods that would mean half of the school would have lunch at one time, while others would be in a class. Then it would switch and the other half of the student population would eat their lunch. This would make lunch less crowded and lines a lot shorter.
Many schools implement multiple lunch periods to control the lunch crowds. If other schools can do it, why can’t GHC do the same?
“ I could see a benefit in multiple lunch periods because it would make lines shorter, and people could get their food quicker, giving people more time to eat and socialize with friends,” sophomore Trinidad Montenegro said. “As someone who has experienced a school with multiple lunch periods it was calmer and more peaceful.”
“The staff is aware of how crowded it gets during lunch and they are working on solutions to fix it, for example bringing back the F building cart,” Administrative Director Julia Howelman said. “As easy as it may sound to move the schedule around to make it so that we have multiple lunch periods, it’s the exact opposite. In order for the bell schedule to change teachers would have to bargain and come up with an agreement. To change the schedule to have multiple lunch periods may be hard but it’s not impossible.”
Along with getting the teachers on board, there are numerous concerns to consider. For example, a dual-lunch period would also make club meetings more challenging since not all members would have the same lunch period. Friend groups would also be split up into different lunch periods making socializing more challenging duringschool.
However, most students are at school for around seven hours a day and lunch is a precious resource to help them fuel up from a hard day’s work. Making the lunch experience as comfortable and enjoyable as possible would go a long way toward helping students be the best they can in their learning environments.
The Plaid Press 