A follow up on lunch lines
Principal Luke managing the busy lunch line (Sophia Hughes, The Puma Prensa)
By Heyman Luong, opinion editor
On July 9, 2021, California Assembly Bill 130 was signed, pushing forth the Universal Meals program—a program that would make school lunch free for all students in California beginning in the 2022-2023 school year. Since then, thousands of students have enjoyed meals for free at Carrillo alone. However, there was a problem: the lunch lines. Especially when it was announced that lunches would be free, lunch line cutting and shoving was a rampant, near-uncontrolled problem. The students with integrity who waited in line were only punished for it, and more and more people were forced to cut for fear of not getting food. As well as this, students have always complained about poor food quality, and often not enough food. However, this year administration has tried to help out in various ways, like adding yellow caution tape, having staff watch over the line, and having a more careful watch on students taking food.
One big issue that students have faced is line cutting. However, recently, changes have been made to reduce cutting significantly, to varying degrees of success. An example of this is the yellow caution tape put up to extend the lunch line so that it is more orderly. In addition to this, there is sometimes a staff member at the lunch line to discourage cutting, unlike before. Senior Dylan Decastro says that “last year when there was no admin, the lines [became] too much with the amount of pushing and crowding near the entrance,” and that staff has helped to facilitate the moving of the lines. However, Decastro notes that the root problems are the long wait times and lack of food, which contribute to cutting and are “the biggest issues, more than cutting ever was.” Continuing, he believes that many students would cut less if the lines moved faster and there was enough good food for everyone, “Improving the quality of food and making it more balanced is important because oftentimes good…nutritious, filling food such as breakfast burritos…runs out incredibly fast and everyone is left with barely filling cereal.” Another student, Junior Bailey Epperson, thinks that [staff] does help facilitate the flow of students…but they could be doing better [things] on campus. She believes that with the influx of students getting school lunches in the past few years, “our system is now ineffective,” and thinks that changing “how the lunches are distributed” would be better.
On the issue of enough food, a problem students have noticed is that others would often take extra food, leaving less for other students and contributing to the lack of food compared to its demand. However, there has been much tighter regulation over food taken, and there has been a noticeable decrease in students who go without food—regardless of whether one’s classroom is across the campus or next to the cafeteria, many more students are able to enjoy a free lunch. However, there is still a problem—the cafeteria is often understocked for the amount of students who want food. Not only this, but the cafeteria also requires students to take a fruit at break, often leading to thrown away, uneaten food and less for those who wanted it. Students forced to take a fruit will often not eat it, leading to a lot of littering, particularly in the freshman and sophomore quads. As well as this, it contributes to making the custodians’ jobs harder.
On a positive note, some students have also had a slight increase in food quality. Decastro notes that “lunch food has gotten better” compared to last year. Yet, he thinks that “break is still really lacking” and that it’s “terrible for someone who doesn't have [breakfast at home],” going through the morning with just “lucky charms and maybe an apple.”
Recent modifications to the lunch line have displayed that change can be made—even if it is just on a small scale—to increase the quality of life for students. Despite this, though, satisfaction from students isn’t particularly high. Even though there have been some improvements, the low baselines for students leave them unsatisfied.
The changes are fairly ineffective. The food variety being “mediocre,” according to Epperson. Students still are unsatisfied, but at least attempts are being made. “Overall,” Decastro states, “I feel little…improvement.”