The pandemic reshaped many aspects of school life, including cafeteria policies. Now, all students benefit from free meals, but this change brings new challenges. Before the pandemic, only low-income students qualified for free meals, but now all students can get one free meal daily.
Del Mar’s cafeteria serves 700+ students in 30 minutes, up from 100 in post-pandemic years, causing long lines, students and staff being stressed, and misunderstandings. The policy of no seconds aims to prevent waste, though it sometimes leads to frustration.
The cafeteria has improved from pre-packaged meals to scratch cooking that involves new recipes being cooked every week. Although there are benefits from this policy that are unknown to students, there are challenges that come with it including student behavior, such as rushing to lines, using others’ IDs, and storming in to get another lunch.
Before the pandemic, every student had to pay for their lunch meal resulting in a small amount of students getting lunch. One would have to qualify for a free meal depending on the parent’s income. Now, the way the cafeteria and staff operate has changed. When asked when this policy was set, the head of the cafeteria, Jennifer Perez, comments that the state has allowed everyone one free meal and that she enjoys this transition from previous years.
“I like it. Honestly, I love it, because at least one kid will always have one breakfast, and they’ll always have a hot meal a day.”
Many can wonder what it would take to change this policy to get a second lunch, without paying the $5.75 fee, but the school’s cafeteria budget is based on the school’s population, and seeking change requires administration discussions.
In Perez’s high school years, food was pre-packaged, and comparing it to today’s food, she says that she wouldn’t change anything about the setup the district has, along with scratch cooking that they’re doing now. One thing she acknowledges that’s challenging is the lunch line. Although there isn’t much the cafeteria staff can do about it being bunched up, she adds what insights the students might have that can cause this.
“Line wise, I don’t think we could do much about it, just because, as you students are deciding what you want, you’re tired of the one thing, so you’re constantly thinking of like, what else can I get instead of what I got yesterday?”
Both the lunch line and the breakfast line can get piled up with many students wanting to go first. This is hard on the cafeteria staff, but they acknowledge that it’s frustrating for students to wait for their turn to come inside. Originally, when getting your lunch, the staff are supposed to scan your ID at the end. With this, the line would become a bigger mess.
The alternative for this is to scan the students ID’s in the beginning to get their lunch. Although there have been discussions about opening up the snack bar area, there aren’t staff to work these areas, which results in the food carts around the school campus for students who want to get cold items or pizza.
An alternative perspective is that if there are leftovers after everyone has gotten lunch, then people who have already scanned their IDs should be able to receive another meal. Another cafeteria worker, Anne Ciara, explains why she prefers this over the school’s policy and why it bothers her.
“… if there’s leftovers, I feel like it would be okay because the part that I hate the most is that at the end of each day, there is stuff that we throw away.”
The amount of food thrown away varies from day to day, and how fresh the food is. The policies about how fresh the food is after lunch depend on its shelf life. Even with this, Ciara agrees that it’s not right for kids to come rushing through grabbing two to three lunches at a time which results in a huge waste of food.“… Our eyes are bigger than our stomachs,” says Ciara
Creating a two-lane line in the cafeteria is challenging for students, leading to frustration and increased hunger as the line slows. The need to manually enter codes rather than scanning barcodes adds to the delays. Cafeteria staff understand students are eager to eat but ask for patience as they work to speed up the process. Ciara suggests that providing better airflow could help students exit more quickly after getting their lunch.
“… it makes it difficult to serve. Some kids are shoving in front of others when others were there first so, you know, trying to serve the “first come first serve”, not allowing people to shove.”
Having awareness of this policy and why it’s being pushed is important to keep everyone happy and safe. Cafeteria workers will not respond to an angered reaction from a student and will be dealt with by a superintendent which can result in a discussion with administrators. Ciara adds to the knowledge of students regarding this issue and whether or not students are aware of these rules.
“I don’t know that they do. I don’t think whether it’s not asking, or just, you know, not having awareness.”
If you have any questions regarding this issue, make sure to ask staff on campus and spread the word to make the jobs of cafeteria staff easier for them, and students.
