Lunch Fatigue: The various problems with hybrid lunch

With school back in-person, that meant preparing myself for the social interaction I’ve been lacking for months. Though, I didn’t think that I’d have to prepare for my growling stomach not only before lunch, but after it as well.

Now that hybrid school is back, meaning that students go to in-person school two days a week, my eating schedule has been completely thrown off, since I don’t eat at a set time during the school week like I did during online school. 

Having first lunch on Mondays bright and early at 10:50, it feels weird to eat my savory sandwich that early, knowing that if it were the same time on Saturday, I’d be eating breakfast. And with the latest lunch being at 12:25, this could leave students starving through their third and seventh hours after eating breakfast six hours beforehand with no snacks allowed in-between.

Late lunches bring up another issue of staying hydrated throughout the day, since I don’t necessarily feel comfortable taking my mask off to take a sip of water during class. 

There’s negative effects to eating during both the earlier and later lunches. Having an early lunch throws off my eating schedule, while having a late lunch distracts me during class by my parched mouth and hungry stomach. 

Another issue about socially distanced lunches with a limited amount of people bring up is there’s a lower chance of having somebody you know to eat with during lunch.

While I’m lucky enough to have people I know during my lunch hour this semester, last semester I wasn’t so lucky as a good amount of my friends went to school on different days than me.

The lower odds of people having friends in their assigned lunches might cause students to dread lunch, and they may not eat, and the lack of food may cause distractions later in the day. For some, lunch has just become a time to watch Netflix on their phone without even eating anything.

Unfortunately, these issues are caused by the pandemic which seemingly cannot be controlled, so I understand that there’s nothing that the school can do about making lunches smaller or reconfiguring lunch times. If we’re able to be at school in-person, skewed lunches are a small trade off.