by Shay Deveney

Longer Lunch at CMS
By Shay Deveney

Students have pretty short lunches, as many of you know. But can they have longer lunches? The answer, surprisingly, is probably no. There are many reasons lunches feel very short, even though they are actually twenty-five minutes long.

One reason lunches feel short is the lines. As most of us know, the lunchroom is split into three sections, which the principals call one at a time, a few minutes apart. This creates a problem because by the time the last section is called, the principals are already starting to call for trays and trash. This leaves the last section with about eight minutes to eat.

Some may worry that a longer lunch could negatively affect class time. If we did have a longer lunch, it would cut into class time, but only by about five to ten minutes.

Unfortunately, a longer lunch isn’t practical because of the schedule. The last lunch already starts at 1:45, and the first lunch is at 10:30. Extending lunch would mean the first lunch might have to begin at 10:15, and the last lunch would end closer to 2:00. This would mean some students are essentially eating lunch at breakfast time.

There are a few ways we could make lunch feel longer without changing the schedule. One option is to add a second serving line on the other side of the cafeteria. This would allow twice as many people to get in line at once, helping everyone get their lunch faster.