Imagine students running through the halls to get to lunch on time so they will actually have enough time to eat. This is just one of the problems regarding lunch at Athens Drive. Students are upset about the fact that there are three different lunch periods, that lunch time lasts just around half an hour, and that they don’t have SMART lunch anymore. All ages of students have problems with how lunch is set up.
At the beginning of the school year, there were just two lunch periods. The faculty found that the lunch periods were way too crowded, so they decided to add another lunch period, just for freshmen. The B lunch period happens in the middle of the freshman classes’ third period. This change was made after the first two weeks of school. Lots of people think that this lunch was added in before the problem could solve itself. Nora Richards is one of the students in B lunch and she has a strong opinion about why it is unnecessary.
“B lunch was started because of Covid precautions and the other lunches being too crowded, but now that all of the Covid restrictions have been taken away, B lunch is unnecessary. There are barely any students in B lunch as it is,” said Richards, freshman.
Lunch at Athens Drive is only half an hour long, which is extremely short compared to the 88-minute class time. There is lots of research showing that 30 minutes is not enough time for students to get to lunch, eat, digest their food, and socialize with their friends.
“People that go off campus for lunch have maybe 15 minutes to get in their car, get their food and come back. Then after that, there is barely any time to actually eat,” said Caroline Moore, junior.
After lunch all of the students are rushing to get back into the parking lot so a lot of fender benders happen. — Caroline Moore
30 minutes definitely is not enough time for students to drive to a restaurant to order their lunch and eat it while also getting back to class on time. This can also be a safety concern because if students are rushing to get back on campus on time, it increases the risk of crashes.
Some students are hoping for SMART lunch to come back, but others are against it. SMART lunch is where there is only one lunch period for all students, and then in the second half of the lunch period, students can go to clubs, get help from teachers, socialize with friends, or do school work. The idea of having a longer lunch and time to work on other things is a great idea. All students being in the cafeteria at one time is not such a good idea.
“I don’t think SMART lunch is a good idea because there were way too many students in the cafeteria at once and there were a lot of fights that happened,” said Syed Abbas, senior.
All of the fights and chaos that happened during the years that they had SMART lunch caused faculty to make two different lunches and stop SMART lunch from happening.
Changes to how the flow of lunch goes will hopefully see a change in the 2022-2023 school year. All students would feel way better with shorter class periods, longer lunches, and only two lunch periods.
