Lunch is a topic that I’ve discussed in the past that has really changed my perspective on it. But this time it’s not the amount of time we get for lunch, it’s where we can go that’s going to be affecting us in the 2023-2024 school year. Starting this next school year there will be restrictions on if a student can go off campus for lunch. Students will be able to go off campus for lunch only if their grades are what they are supposed to be or if they are on track to graduate on time. 

The reason for these new rules is because in the past students would leave their lunch and not return to school. This is not the only reason though.

The other reason is capacity. Pasco High School has approximately two-thousand-three-hundred students and the cafeteria can only hold so many students. As a solution to the need for space, many students resort to either going to their cars or going to nearby stores like seven-eleven and close by gas stations. 

One similar thing that Pasco High School added this year recently was the alarms on the doors. Although their main purpose is to sound when a student or someone walks out, many students dislike them because it lets the security know what door they’re coming out of. Even with the installation of the alarms to prevent students from skipping students just honestly don’t care and still leave anyways. 

Which brings me back to my main point about these new lunch regulations, which is that implementing these new lunch restrictions will not provide sufficient results because the students simply just do not care. They will find a way to leave school.

One student I spoke to said, “I don’t like them; I feel like it’s going to make students want to skip more if it happens” in reference to the 2023-24 campus lunch regulations.

Another student I interviewed said, “I think it’s a terrible decision the school is making, and I feel like kids should be allowed to go out.” 

According to one site(connectusfund.org), off campus lunch helps with time management skills, when there is a open lunch policy it teaches students time management skills because they must leave campus, go to the grocery store, fast food restaurant, gas station, nearby order their food wait for it, eat it, and get back in school for their next class. 

This can show students how to be responsible with their time and prepares them for the real world.  

Off-campus lunch can also show adults that they can trust students and show them that they are responsible and ready for the real world. As well as it can help students make better dietary decisions with the school food being the food it is, (mostly foods with a lot of grease and fat like the pizza, teriyaki chicken and the nachos) it can help them make the right decisions, and meet their specific needs if they are allergic to a certain food they can go somewhere else and find food that they are not allergic to so that they can have a healthy adulthood. 

Along with making the choice to eat healthier, students are able to make more personal choices on what they want to eat other than the repetitive school food. 

One unnamed student from PHS said, “I like the food here but sometimes it can get annoying eating the same things every week” 

In the end, here are the reasons I’ve stated why Pasco high school should not implement the new 2023-24 school lunch regulations.