Lunchtime is often one of the most anticipated times of the day allowing students to relax and spend time with friends. However, many students at Pleasant Valley may frequently find that this time they have been waiting for has been spoiled.
Lunch is a very important time in all students’ schedules, providing them with necessary time off and nutritious meals to keep them going throughout the day. The lunch staff at Pleasant Valley does a wonderful job of providing meals to over 1,500 students and staff. But sometimes it just isn’t quite enough.
Students that have D lunch, the last lunch of the four, often have trouble getting the meals they looked forward to all day. The more popular meals can all be purchased before D lunch students even get a chance to get a single serving of said meal.
D lunch student and sophomore at Pleasant Valley, Ethan Huffman, expresses his concerns, “If there is a popular lunch available, I sometimes don’t get to eat it because they have run out by the time I get in line,” commented Huffman.
Aside from eating, students can encounter other problems with the cafeteria such as seating issues. Many of the tables in the cafeteria are missing seats entirely, splitting up friend groups from eating with each other.
“Some lunch tables are missing seats and that can make finding a table for everybody to sit together challenging. There have been lunches where me and my friends haven’t gotten to all eat together because of this,” Spartan sophomore Soren Kelsall expressed.
The janitorial staff performed the challenging task of replacing all of the seats earlier this year. While greatly appreciated by the student body, it isn’t enough to keep up with how quickly they are being broken.
Whether by malicious intent or poor manufacturing, something needs to be done to accommodate student needs. Many often eat on the commons floor due to the cafeteria lacking the proper space for them.
The staff has also been dealing with frequent issues of theft in the cafeteria. Students can easily slip snacks or drinks into their pockets or hide it elsewhere to slip it past the checkout line. These issues have caused the staff to temporarily remove sides before or change how they are distributed.
“For a good amount of time we couldn’t get some of the sides at all due to them not being sold. They were taken away because people were stealing them,” stated senior Hamza Nadeem.
While inconveniences like these may seem small, they can have large impacts on students’ days who rely on lunch as a time to unwind. The staff continues to improve on the issues and hopes that changes such as the incoming larger cafeteria will help solve them entirely.
