Have you ever been to lunch, and were not able to enjoy your food because you didn’t have enough time? This is a common issue for most H-F students, including myself. 

H-F has changed its bell schedule several times in the past three years, but the issue of lunch periods not being long enough has remained. Students are not able to properly enjoy or finish their food, because they are in a rush to eat. We are only given thirty minutes for lunch, which sounds like plenty of time right? Wrong! In 30 minutes we have to get in lengthy lines to get food, find a seat, and eat. 

I know it sounds simple, but standing in line for fifteen minutes to just get your food is ridiculous, and a waste of time that could be used to eat.

We all know that H-F is a highly populated school, but this does not excuse the fact that lunch periods are overcrowded. I think if we are going to keep the same amount of students in each lunch period, then the time should be extended. 

Even on block days (Tuesday-Thursday) when students are sitting in classes for over an hour, the lunch schedule is the same. I realized this was an issue when one day I stood in line for lunch for almost twenty minutes, and by the time I started to eat, it was time to go back to class.

 According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), students should be given 30-minute lunch periods, with at least twenty minutes of sitting down. Yes, we are given 30-minute periods, but not everyone is able to have their food and sit down for twenty minutes. 

That should not be an issue or concern for anyone at H-F, or school in general. Students have been seen running, or pacing to food lines in B lunch in the South building, so they can be early, and won’t have to deal with long lines. 

H-F has slightly improved the issue of overcrowded lunches by adding more tables in the cafeteria in the North building. That is truly not enough to solve the problem. The school should either add an additional lunch period, or extend the time of the period. 

At least on block days, students should be given an extra eight to ten minutes, since classes are longer on those days. 

Nearby high schools  such as Bloom and Marian Catholic have the same lunch periods, and they do not face the same issues as H-F.  Yes, it might be because they do not have as many students, but they also have more lunch periods than H-F. We are also not allowed to walk to the opposite building for lunch. 

I think there are plenty of ways to resolve this issue for the next school year, and the years after that. Administration should look into either extending our fifth period so that we have a longer lunch period, or adding an additional lunch period. 

Administration should want students to be able to properly eat the lunch that they are paying for, therefore they should take this situation seriously.