“Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the soul.” Whether it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner, food is vital for everybody—but especially for growing teenagers. It might sound silly to some, but when students are either rushing to eat or not getting to eat at all, there becomes a clear issue. Hempfield does a good job at getting students a variety of options to choose from at lunch; there are plenty of healthy meals and snacks to choose from. However, the real problem is the lack of sufficient time to eat.

According to Salemhealth.org, the ideal time to eat is around 20-30 minutes. Hempfield offers a 30 minute lunch break which may seem like enough time, but with this information, we now know it is not. The time it takes to wait in line can vary and cut off 10-15 minutes of eating, sometimes even more. That, combined with talking to friends and teachers, means you now have even less time. It is also important to consider that different lunches have different amounts of people, and therefore more or less time than people from other lunches.

Various reports show that lunch A can get packed and people are still getting food near the end of lunch. However, this varies as people have alternating lunches; therefore, there are less or more people than usual. Lunch B is described as more moderate than some other lunches. Lunch C is busy but can also vary between day 1 and 2. Lunch D is described as always busy and packed.

While undergoing the making of this article, an unexpected opportunity arose to find out the cause and a possible solution to this dilemma. While one side of the cafeteria was going through construction and students had to use only one line for a few days, it was discovered that some students weren’t completely opposed to it. Some even reported it going faster than the regular lines. The reason for this was simple. Instead of the usual two lunch ladies working the lines, there were four. This caused the line to go faster as there were more people to serve the food and make sure everything was going well in the back of the line. However, the solution to this problem is less simple than the cause. 

For students to have enough time to relax and enjoy their food, it is required to have more people help serve the food. This is not easy simply because it is not evident if the school has enough money to hire more workers, or even have enough space. To even think about this process, there may need to be changes that are not possible at this moment. For example, the amount of workers may not completely remedy the situation. The school may need to increase the amount of time to 40 or more minutes. This change in time can not only alter the school schedule but also the after-school schedule. Sports and transportation would be later. Class runtimes could either be the same or shortened.

The basis of this article is not to change the entire school structure. This is rather to make people think about the future and what can be improved. With plans to renovate the school this year, this may be a good time to think about changes that go beyond the appearance and can improve Hempfield’s lunches into efficient, nutritious, and delicious times of the day.