Hurrah for the lunch ladies, and hurrah for those provided for, too. I’ve no bones to pick with them or their wonderfully prepared lunches, but with the few weeks I’ve been back at school, one thing has been made obvious: the lines are really long; they’re the longest that they’ve ever been. This may be due in part to the main cafeteria being the only area of distribution that the freshmen are aware of. Even though construction in the 400s has been completed with space in the lunch area opening up as a result, somehow the lunch lines are even longer now. This is a big problem.

It’s hard, it really is, to stand in ninety-degree weather, hungry and tired and surrounded by hundreds of students who are just as fatigued, waiting for a meal that will take more than half the lunch period to receive. But what if I punch in my lunch number and gratefully take the tray of plastic-wrapped grilled cheese and bagged orange juice from the lunch staff, so what? The lunch is great, and so is the lunch staff—but even if the food is gourmet, many students won’t get to enjoy it. By the time I finally reach the front of the line, the bell has long since rung. I’m left with only two options—to scarf my food down tastelessly, or to abandon it altogether since most teachers won’t let students eat in their classrooms. So the only thing awaiting me after lunch, welcoming me with open arms, is another two hours of class time in a building with broken air conditioning.

This daily occurrence isn’t pretty, and DBHS needs a solution for its nutrition staff and students. Realistically, the answer many students resort to is to wait out the short lunch break and try to enjoy the most of one’s short time with friends on an empty stomach, or maybe snatch food from a fortunate acquaintance’s tray in passing. Fortunately, the cafeteria workers continue to serve lunches for up to five minutes after the bell—and this is the time to stare pleadingly into the window at the ladies on the other side until they graciously offer up their leftover meals for you to devour on the walk to class.

These unfortunate circumstances shouldn’t have to happen, and they won’t—if the starving students of DBHS are to joust in favor of change, then the natural course would be to create additional lunch areas that are dispersed evenly throughout campus. At both the main cafeteria and the branch location next to our locker rooms, thousands of students storm in from all directions immediately after the bell, sprinting to be the first into the narrow, single-file lines—-putting those with further classes at a disadvantage. Placing smaller outlets all around the school combats this injustice and provides a win-win situation for both lunch staff and students. The additional lunch areas will also allow more students to eat on actual tables. with only a few tables divided over thousands of students, the vast majority are forced to sit on the dusty floor or stand against a wall. Setting tables at the 400s and 300s buildings, or tents at the quad branching out from the main locations, for example, could serve students on a grab-and-go basis and alleviate the traffic that comes with having only two main lunch zones.