Cafeteria Shake-Up: Stricter lunch policies have been implemented this year at East, frustrating students

New lunch policies were implemented at East on Aug. 14. These policies include having administrators around all exits of the cafeteria making sure students don’t eat their lunch in the hall or roam around during their assigned lunch period.

Associate Principal Kristoffer Barikmo helped make these decisions along with the rest of the administration at East.

“There’s always been administrator supervision inside the cafeteria,” Barikmo said. “This year because of the way the schedule was made, we didn’t have as many teachers available for hallway support. So then administrators had stepped in to provide that supervision.”

In addition, administration reduced previously 30-minute lunches down to 25 minutes and the use of reusable plastic lunch trays that students have to turn in at the end of their lunch period. 

According to Barikmo, the time change was made to have an equal amount of time as other schools in the district.

For some students, including sophomore Skye Welch, these changes have made it difficult for students to use their lunch time effectively. Limited entrances and exits for students to use have made the lunch rooms more crowded, according to Welch.

“At one point I was at the end of the lunch line,” Welch said.“I only had 10 minutes to eat and there was no spot to sit anywhere at all. So I just ended up sitting outside on the ground and the tray drop off ended up making me late to class.”

These rules still affect seniors who are allowed to leave school for lunch, according to senior Lilly Greenstein.

“When I do leave I have to be really quick because the lunches are shorter now,” Greenstein said. “I have to order food ahead of time.”

Greenstein also doesn’t agree with students not being able to leave the cafeteria after being used to sitting in the choir hall during lunch, or sitting with friends in other areas besides the cafeteria.

“It just feels unnecessarily harsh,” Greenstein said. “There are bigger issues going on in the school. More important ones than students sitting in the choir hall during lunch or people going to lunch a few minutes early.”

According to Barikmo, it has always been a rule that students cannot leave the cafeteria during lunch. Administration has decided to reinforce more this year, due to respecting health codes and preventing disruption in other classrooms.

“One of the promises that we make to students and teachers is that we’re going to create an environment where it’s not disruptive,” Barikmo said. “Having to keep people in the lunchroom is because we want to make sure that our learning environment isn’t disrupted, but also because it’s a health code requirement.”

Although students have disagreed with some of these policies, the reusable lunch trays have been beneficial in making sure that there’s no trash left in the lunchroom, according to Barikmo.

The use of reusable lunch trays also reduces the amount of paper waste that could come from paper trays while also reducing trash from food.

“I think they allow us to keep a cleaner space,” Barikmo said. “If kids are eating lunch in the cafeteria, it allows our building to be cleaner, but I also think it allows us to fulfill the promise to our teachers that the learning environment isn’t going to be disrupted.”