Whether eating, relaxing, or socializing, Aragon’s half-hour-long lunch break is an opportunity for students to eat and take a break from their classes. This is ideal but not necessarily possible due to a barrage of club meetings for students and the absence of a cafeteria for students to eat comfortably on campus. In order to fully meet students’ needs, Aragon’s lunch plans may need to be changed.
Students do not always have sufficient time during the lunch break. Freshman Alex Garcia, who is not a member of any club, says, “I don’t think 30 minutes is enough time—it’s too rushed. When trying to complete a missing assignment during lunch, it all goes by too fast and the next thing you know, you didn’t finish what you were working on and you didn’t eat lunch.”
Some students participate in other activities during lunch and may have to resort to eating lunch at a different time. Freshman Weber Su, a member of two lunchtime clubs, says, “I go to the Aragon gym during lunch to play basketball … Since I play basketball, I actually eat after lunchtime during sixth period … For students to get more time for lunch, either clubs should end earlier or we should get more lunch time.”
However, sophomore Nick Zier, a member of Jewish Club, believes that the time allocated for lunch is adequate. He says, “The club meets every two weeks, but I’ll usually eat during the meeting in the club. For that reason, I do feel that I have enough time for lunch.”
Having comfortable eating places is also important to students. Zier says, “I have a comfortable place to eat because I eat while being surrounded by a lot of my friends. I have not had a problem with no cafeteria at Aragon.”
However, Garcia says, “There is no comfortable place to each lunch at Aragon. At the few tables that the school does have, most are occupied by people who are just hanging out and not actually eating their lunch. This leaves us, the ones who actually eat lunch, having to eat while standing up or sometimes having to eat at other places like the library, where there are tables to sit at, even though it’s not permitted.”
A multitude of state and national school and health agencies, which includes the California Department of Education, recommends that students have a minimum of 20 minutes for lunch after being served. Therefore, a school should also take into account the traveling time to and from the cafeteria (or food carts) and wait time (if a student is buying lunch) along with the eating and socializing time.
Tom Torlakson, the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, wrote in a letter to school leaders on Jan. 25, 2013, “Students perform best academically when well-nourished. It is essential that they consume nutritious meals to assist in meeting their physical, social, and emotional needs. Eating habits formed during childhood impact health patterns into adulthood. Yet often students do not have adequate time to eat a healthy lunch.”
However, lengthening school lunch times may come with difficulties. Torlakson says, “Each school has unique characteristics. We recognize the difficulty in lengthening the amount of time students have to sit and eat lunch when considering costs, workload, and mandated instructional time. There is not a single strategy that will work for every situation.”
Torlakson adds, “Research consistently shows that hungry students cannot learn, and ensuring that students have enough time to eat a nutritious meal promotes academic achievement.”
