Imagine waiting in the sandwich line to get your favorite order. When the sandwich finally gets in your hands, there are only five minutes left of lunch, and you can’t be late to math again. The crowded lunch waves at Lexington High School have struck again, becoming more frequent due to the growing student population. Therefore, the LHS cafeteria should make lunches more efficient and support the needs of students by implementing more grab-and-go stations and online orders.
Efficiency is likely the biggest problem currently faced by LHS when it comes to lunch. The most popular food stations, like nachos or deli sandwiches, have lines stretching so long that they disrupt other students who are just trying to get past.
“Many students want sandwiches but give up when they see the long line,” Patrick Larkin, a dean at LHS, said.
Students have also criticized the inefficiency and limited options.
“A lot of times when I get [to the cafeteria] after class, there’s already a long line at the cashier,” Andy Li, a senior at LHS, said. “A lot of the pre-made food is already gone by the third lunch, so there’s not much to choose from.”
The size of the two Commons is a significant contribution to the issue; both are too small to comfortably contain the number of students during each lunch wave. However, there may be ways to alleviate the pressure without physically renovating the school.
One way to make lunch more efficient could be to bring back pre-ordering options, such as Choosi. This would also allow for more flexibility among students by allowing order customization. Additionally, the grab-and-go stations, like Ruby’s Grill, are notably vacant of long lines and could help alleviate the traffic in more popular areas.
“[Grab-and-go] gives the kids the opportunity to be able to grab something and go. They can just go ‘oh, I want that!’ and they can just go grab them,” Kevin Silvia, Resident District Manager of Whitsons Culinary Group, said.
The cafeteria team is also actively looking at ways to expand, improve, and revamp the food systems at LHS.
“There’s what they call a hot slide [in the Commons]. We may be doing some other grab-and-go items, like chicken tenders, out there for people that don’t want to wait that long,” Silvia said.
Pre-ordering and grab-and-go are usually the most efficient ways for LHS students to get lunch, hence why implementing more of those options would likely improve LHS’s lunch experience. This way, students will be able to get lunch faster and have more time to enjoy their meal.
However, there is rarely ever only one perfect solution to a problem, so it is important for the school community to pitch in ideas if they believe in a better lunch experience.
“Everyone’s ideas can help improve the system. We should keep brainstorming to figure out what works and what hasn’t been tried yet,” Larkin said.
