America, the world’s first and only superpower country, still fails to provide a basic human need—food. There simply isn’t enough lunchtime in school, which causes a concerning amount of students all over the United States to go through each school day hungry.
According to Lunch Time at School, Deb Shell is a mother of 3 children that go to Berkeley Unified School District in Berkeley, California. “She would send her three children to elementary school with packed lunches, and they would come home with their lunch bags almost completely full.” Shell later learned that the district had cut lunchtime to provide longer class times. Schools in Seattle have a policy for a minimum of 20 minutes of lunchtime, but in reality, on average, students only had 13 minutes to actually eat their lunch.” The students are supposed to have 20 minutes to eat, but they often have only 15, Shell said.
“We heard the lunch bell ring, and there were still 18 kids outside who hadn’t been served,” she said. The lack of lunchtime exists even if it isn’t apparent. It’s especially applicable now since students have to social distance in the lunch line, taking even longer than usual.
Merely adding more lunchtime would encourage students to eat not only more food but also healthier food, which affects their learning. A study was done on elementary schools to determine how lunchtime affects food consumption. It found that “students who were provided with a 30-minute lunch period consumed more food and nutrients than those who had the shorter lunch period”. “[With more lunchtime, students] have a better nutritional status. Nutrition status directly affects academic achievement, conduct, and overall school performance”. Schools must prioritize students’ basic needs to ensure their health so that they can focus better on education. “A lack of macronutrients and micronutrients for a sustained period of time is associated with learning and behavioral outcomes including impairments in academic performance.” Without the proper nutrition, students could feel more fatigued, causing students to learn less despite the additional instructional time.
The lack of lunchtime also greatly impacts the economy. Just recently, in 2019, it was reported that “food waste in schools across the country could be as large as 530,000 tons and could cost as much as $1.7 billion each school year.” Parents and schools spend money on the single purpose of feeding students, and it’s literally being wasted. Most of the time, the fault doesn’t even lie with the students. “In a survey of school cafeteria managers, 44% reported ‘not enough time to eat’ as being a possible factor related to plate waste”. The claim was later tested and found that with more lunchtime, “plate waste decreased from 43.5% to 27.2%.”
To initiate a change for longer lunchtime, many would counter that it comes with the obvious addition of school time. Schools would be forced to end later in the day in order to fulfill instructional periods. This may, in fact, be superfluous. According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), “[Lunch, in-class breakfast,] and recesses count toward meeting the 75,600 minutes requirement”. Even if schools increased lunchtime and kept school hours the same, the minimum school minutes would be met regardless. As for the sacrifice in the mere few minutes of instructional time, the return easily outweighs the cost. Adding just 10 minutes to lunch would only take a minute or two from each class. Again with enough lunchtime, students will perform more efficiently in school and strive higher.
Lunch is an important part of everyone’s daily meals, and while schools are snipping away at the student’s lunchtime, students are finding themselves rushing more on something that they should be enjoying. In the large font on Frisco ISD’s homepage, it boldly states, “Our mission is to know every student by name and need,” yet fails to provide time for lunch. This is one school out of many, who are rushing through lunchtime, failing the students. Parents can start petitions, students can speak to school administrators, but it all comes down to the districts’ board, administration, and superintendent.
Lunch is the only time we, the students, get to interact and socialize with friends. Lunch is the only time when we can relax and enjoy ourselves. Lunch is the only time we can be free from our work.
A call to action for schools—don’t make lunch into something stressful and rushed; we students need that time for our physical and mental health.
