The leek: School lunch never fails

The routine found in the LN lunch room benefits students

Lara North enters the LN lunch room at around noon to attend the first lunch period of the day, however, she cannot immediately enter the line to get food.
“They use a metal gate to prevent us from stampeding the line as soon as we enter. After we wait in a pretty big cluster, we run inside after the gates are opened,” North said. Over 500 students enter the lines at once, completely assisting the flow of traffic. Although there aren’t accurate signs outside of each line to tell what is being served, LN teens have a blast playing the guessing game.
“Once we’re inside the lines, I’d estimate the wait is only 20 or so minutes,” North said. North is happy to scroll on her phone while she waits. Using the school’s allowed connection she can connect to her settings page and more. When she finally reaches the serving station, she thinks about her choices. North says she chooses the one with the biggest helping of food.
“Sometimes we can choose between a breadstick or two mozzarella sticks. Usually it’s hard to pick because they both sound so filling,” North said. It’s important to not add too many sides to your tray, or you’ll exceed the limit. So, she sticks with a banana and string cheese most days.
“When I’m checking out, I am almost always told that I have way too much food with me and have to put an item back,” North said. She finds this helpful because it holds students accountable and prevents them from overeating due to the large portions of food served. According to the National Student Lunch Committee, overeating kills millions of students daily.
“It only takes five or six minutes to walk around and search for a place to sit and eat.It’s a quick process, and once you leave the line, you find a seat in the cafeteria,” North said. Around 3,000 students divided up into four lunch periods leads to limited room for seating. North makes sure to watch her step due to students having to sit on the floor.
“Some people worry that they might not be able to finish the food in time, but surprisingly it only takes two minutes to finish the whole course,” North said. As the bell rings, hundreds of students rush to each exit of the lunch room, but a swift process still takes place. A clump of people forms at each door and many wait for a few minutes before even leaving the lunch room.
“My stomach only really growls for a few hours until I make it home. I can’t even notice it,” North said. She returns to class and works extra quickly due to fuel from her big lunch. Although her second meal for the day is complete, she has every day this week to look forward to the feast at school.
“I couldn’t love the school lunch process any more than I do already,” North said.