In my opinion, lunch times at Lincoln are unbelievably short. Excluding the five minute break before third period starts, there is 34 minutes of lunch time. Since you’re meant to enjoy your food, rushing to finish defeats the purpose.
While 34 minutes is more than enough time to eat a burrito or a slice of pizza from the cafeteria, it doesn’t account for the time it takes to wait in line, get food and check out. This leaves less time to eat, and it creates a negative experience.
From my experience, it doesn’t have to be this way. For all of middle school and my first two years of high school, I lived in Vienna, Austria. There, the lunch periods were much longer. For example, in tenth grade, I had different lunch times depending on the day. On certain days, our school got an hour and fifty minutes, on others, we got two hours and forty minutes. Then on Fridays, we got four hours and twenty minutes of lunch time!
My school in Vienna did this to give students the ability to eat at their own pace, and have enough time to prepare for afternoon classes. This is different than lunches at Lincoln, where you have to eat fast enough to make it up the stairs to your class. Although I got used to it pretty quickly, I don’t believe students should have to rush to eat their food, because it’s neither healthy nor comfortable.
According to the King County Green Schools Program, longer school lunch periods, especially longer seated lunch times, lead to less food waste and improved student performance, cognitive function, physical health, and social/emotional health. Also, from personal experience, I can say that I am much more productive when I have a longer lunch. Sometimes, it feels almost impossible to stay focused after lunch at Lincoln.
