by Charles Cox ’23 and Callista Pham ’23
Have you ever eaten lunch alone? Or, have you not been able to grab a seat because it was so packed? Lunch scheduling is an important part of the Sem community. Therefore, when Covid-19 happened to the world, it even affected little things like our lunch.
Covid-19 has brought many changes to, and one of these changes is the structure to our lunch. The lunch schedule used to be and has now returned to an hour long lunch (community lunch). But, it was changed to 40 minutes intervals with an X and Z section (old lunch). The idea of lunch has been changed for everyone: some prefer the community structure and others the old one.
No one would know that Covid-19 happened. Before the pandemic, the Sem community always had the same lunch system. Due to Covid-19, the school decided to divide lunch time into half in order to protect students. This system turned out to be very helpful to the lunch staff and lines were at an all time low.
Yet, many students were dissatisfied with the idea of not being able to have lunch with their friends. And, the shortened lunch period of 40 minutes made it hard to use lunch as time to do anything else besides eating. This quote from a student shows the positives of the community lunch system and negatives of the old lunch system, “I like the community lunch because I get to see my friends and get to see everyone. I don’t like the old lunch because sometimes, I didn’t have lunch with my friends and I hate eating alone,” Nadia Saeed, ’23.
The community lunch system offered a great way to spend time with your friends. And, since it is an hour long you would have enough time to meet up with a teacher or do homework. This lunch was called a community lunch since everyone was able to see everyone.
However, this lunch failed to be efficient and made it difficult to find seating. “I think it’s too much for you guys. The lines are too long and you have to wait too long. And the dining is just jammed up. You can never get seats,” Mrs. Linda Brown, a lunch staff member.
In conclusion, the old lunch helped our Sem community to stop the spread of Covid-19, and it was easier for the lunch staff to do their work. Even with all that said, most of the students still prefer the community lunch since they can meet their friends and have more time to rest.