Kempsville high school’s lunch is simply just a stampede. Students go to lunch at 11:45 and are bombarded by crowding, pushing, huge lines and most aren’t even able to get lunch if they don’t make it in time.
This not only causes frustration, but it leaves students feeling hungry.
The school has added a red line divider to try and tame the rushing into the cafeteria, but does it really even work?
Daniel Lamhas been working at Kempsville High School for three years as a security guard. His job during lunch is to make sure the line is going smoothly and to keep an eye on the kids. But what many don’t notice is that the job is more difficult than it may seem.
Lamb see’s many issues on the daily, when asked if he has difficulties keeping an eye on students to make sure they aren’t cutting the lines he states, “I can’t really say anything because it just holds up the line, there’s no real respectful way of doing it because the kids, they know what they are doing.”
“Am I gonna cause a ruckus and yell at them? No, because it just causes more chaos.”
With Lamb standing in the front of the lines keeping an eye on everyone he points out that “the thing about lunch is that they just don’t have enough time, and with the snacks, oh my god I see it every day they just fly into the line.”
“One day they weren’t selling snacks and I saw the line decrease and it seemed that kids were just flying through the lines so much quicker,” Lamb states.
Students view this situation similar to Lamb, Elliot Vander Nat, an 11th grade student, states that, “There is a long lunchline that takes forever to get through, I believe that the way lunch had been handled in my previous years here at Kempsville was a lot better.”
Vander Natsees people cutting the line constantly and points out that, “we have lines that take forever to move, and we are overpopulated so that doesnt help.” which he states creates the issue.
“People don’t want to sit in the line the entirety of lunch so they cut the line to cut the amount of time they have to spend in the lunch line so they can go back to their day.”
A 12th grade student, Anthony Gunsel, brings up many issues with the school lunch and states, “It usually takes 30-plus minutes to even get past lunch, the lines are too long and the food isn’t always the best.” And followed this statement by saying “usually the main entrees are gone and the sides are low.”
So with the issues that are blatantly obvious, it’s thought that the school may try and do something about it, but Lamb states that “It doesn’t seem like they have at all right?”
“We need a new school, and a bigger cafeteria because there’s only three lunch lines, if they had one more that would help. Maybe we could extend the cafeteria, I know it’s a big project but they could start in June and possibly finish before school starts back up.”
Another solution could possibly be using the coffee shop room to sell school lunch snacks. Lam agrees saying, “That’s a great idea, they feel like they will lose out on money if they don’t sell so why not have them sell lunch items and foods during lunch.”
Lamb also states that another possible solution would be re-opening the pre-ordered lunches, “Didn’t they have lunch stations last year? But do they have them this year, no! Maybe that’s because they’re short staffed but that would definitely help.”
There’s many possibilities when it comes to solving this issue, but the reality is that the school needs to understand that not only their staff has issues with lunch, but the students are heavily affected by the possibilities of not getting food, getting stuck in hallways and simply just having a difficult time obtaining a needed meal.
