Schools should have longer lunches

by Ava C.

Here at Airport High School, the break for lunch is currently twenty-five minutes leaving students barely getting any time to eat.

On the one hand, the rationale for shorter lunches is that it reduces free time for students who may abuse the freedom and get up to bad behaviors; on the other hand, maybe students need a not only a mental break from learning but also time to eat without having to scarf it down.

Lunch at AHS should definitely be longer than twenty-five minutes.

First and foremost, there are negative implications on physical health when lunch breaks are too short. Not having enough time to eat lunch, and rushing to eat is bad for health. “Patients showed that those who ate fast failed to recognize the signs of satiety,” said Zellman. Paz- Graniel, et al. said “Compared to the participants in the slow eating category, those in the faster eating speed category were 59% more likely to have hypertriglyceridemia.” Both of these quotes back up that having a short lunch can cause major health problems that you'll have to deal with later in life.

Secondly, we don't need more time in class, which is what shorter lunches are meant to result in, because length of classes and school day are not correlated with academic gains. One author of an article on Education Week wrote, “Lunch time is frequently whittled away in order for more instructional time.” According to an article on Tech Starter, Finland has shorter school days but the smartest kids in the world.” Finland has the smartest kids but has the shortest days while we have shorter lunch for longer classes which makes logically no sense.

Third, we have to think of the teachers. Teachers also suffer from shorter lunches. They are not given enough time to do what they need to do during their lunch. “60% of educators said their students need at least 30 minutes to eat; more than a third said they need 41-60 minutes to eat lunch,” said Sparks and Prothero for Education Week. They also said, “Students need at least half an hour to eat. But more than three-quarters of teachers warn their students that they don't have enough time to eat.” To reiterate, students aren't the only ones to need more time for lunch. Teachers also feel like they don't have enough time to eat or do whatever they need to do.

People would say that students don't need a longer lunch or they only have to socialize or how kids will miss more class time to eat. However, in addition to the evidence previously discussed to refute these claims, let me also now add that researchers say that if kids eat their food and let it settle better and help them focus on their school work.

“I think high school students should have more than 25 minutes for lunch because most of their social development comes from interacting with their peers at lunch,” Jennifer H. said.

“School lunch is really important to the kids because that's the time where they can take a small break so they don't overwhelm themselves with school but can't do that because of how short the lunches are,” said Izzy L.

As I have attempted to show, Airport’s lunches should be more than 25 minutes. Teachers aren't having enough time to do what they need to do, kids could get health problems because of how fast they are eating, and how they have the shortest lunch so that kids could have more class time. All things considered, not only should lunch be longer, I think that all schools in South Carolina should have mandatory 50 minute lunches. If you agree, contact your school board or state legislators.