Raider Nation has over 2,000 students this year and they all need to eat lunch, so there’s a system to get everyone fed. This system is implemented in three waves, to not flood the cafeteria with all 2,000 students simultaneously. This system, however, gives first lunch the cream of the crop with lunch choices, having all the food and sides. Third lunch is often left with what’s left over, having fewer lunch, drink and side options.
Interviewing students who had first lunch this year but had third lunch in previous years led to many conclusions about third lunch. Local junior Jeremy Johnson stated, “I like the first lunch better because of the time.” Johnson had third lunch last year and said that he hated being the last to eat at 1:40. He would often be hungry by the end of his third-period class but unable to eat lunch or a snack in his class. Another sophomore Wyatt Washburn said that he much preferred having first lunch to third lunch because “there are many more options during first lunch than third lunch.”
Alex Payne, a sophomore with third lunch this year, stated that he hated the lack of food options in third lunch. Last year when he would quite often buy lunch, he would check the School Lunch Menu for the lunch options but he would be disappointed to get the leftovers, as most of the things listed would not be present by the time that he arrived at the lunch line. Such items as “Glazed carrots,” which were cooked carrots with a cinnamon glaze, would be present on the menu but would be unavailable by the time third lunch started. These glazed carrots became a joke in his friend group because of their lack of availability to him when his friends at the first lunch would get them.
When interviewing students in third lunch about which lunch they would prefer to have, most said that they would prefer to have first or second lunch. Third lunch was chosen as the ideal lunch period by only seventeen percent of the students interviewed.
This lunch system is not without flaws but is a necessary evil. It could; however, be improved upon in the form of better stocking of food supplies and the rotation of lunch schedules. If a student is assigned a class for their fourth period that has third lunch, they would be stuck having third lunch all year. Rotating the lunches that classes have every semester could improve fatigue and disdain for third lunch.
