Harrison is growing. Along with extra houses and roads being built, rising numbers of students lead to growing pains in the schools. One of these growing pains is really more of a hunger pain: here at Harrison, more lunch time is needed. 

This year, lunch rooms have been much more crowded than in years prior, leading to a lack of food and space for students to eat. Potential solutions have been proposed, including the possibility of another lunch time being added (a possible D lunch). We are going to talk about everything you need to know regarding these issues and possible layouts for the new lunch times.

First, people who have problems eating should have more time during lunch. I personally have trouble eating due to anxiety, so it takes much longer. Food will make me nauseous and due to that, I eat way slower and take my time. The bell rings way before I get to even finish my food. People who struggle with things like that should be able to spend more time trying to eat rather than going hungry or not eating enough. People should be accounted for based on their individual needs and I believe adding another lunch could help with people who need more time. Having longer lunch periods,  rather than only thirty minutes, would also help people with these kinds of problems. 

To get a better understanding of the struggles presented with the rising number of students, I decided to interview some of the lunch ladies. Lunch lady Pam states “I don’t think 30 minutes is all that long for lunch.”  We also asked her opinion of the possibility of a new lunch, Pam said “I would be fine with it.” and then went on to state “If that’s what they need to do then I am all for it.”

One possible solution to this issue is adding a D lunch. This could include providing some students with a 5th bell that can provide people with 2 lunch times, and or making A lunch earlier (During 4th bell) or D lunch later (During 6th bell) or the possibility of making 5th bell longer to accommodate for lunches. 

I also asked administrators for their opinion on possible solutions to this issue. When we asked Mr. Pollitt, the principal of Harrison, if he has considered adding another lunch he responded by saying “We have looked at it, and considered it, taking into account the rising number of students and seats available at lunch. We are not quite there yet for another lunch.” Although a new lunch could be exciting, if we are not in need of it yet then it’s good to use our facilities to the fullest. We also asked Mr. Pollitt if he would make lunch longer than the designated times, Pollitt responded with “We have not considered it. The reason why is that we have a limited number of hours within the school day to do things and adding more time at lunch could take away from that.”

Overall longer lunches and another lunch time being added would be an exciting idea and could make students happier. However, we  need to understand that we have not fully reached the capacity of our facilities. When the time comes we may have another lunch added, but the time is not now. Longer lunches would be convenient for students who are in need of it, but we do not have enough time in the day to provide that as of right now.