Proper nutrition is an important part of academic excellence
– that’s why school nutrition programs are a part of school
districts’ missions.
Best estimates are that more than half of Gilroy High School students aren’t eating lunch. The reason is that with long lines at the school’s food service stations, students don’t have time to eat.
It’s wrong, as Gilroy Unified School District Trustee Jaime Rosso pointed out, that “by design, half our kids will not get lunch.”
That has to change, and kudos to Rosso for recognizing that.
Proper nutrition is an important part of academic excellence – that’s why school nutrition programs are a part of school districts’ missions.
Given that two relatively simple fixes are available, we don’t understand the current shrug-their-shoulders attitude displayed by GHS administrators when asked about this problem.
The excuse that students are going hungry by choice that was offered by GHS Assistant Principal Mary Ann Boylan – pointing out that lunch lines disappear 23 minutes into a 33-minute lunch period – means she’s deliberately ignoring this relevant fact: Ten minutes is not enough time to purchase and consume lunch and clean up the debris.
Instead, let’s get real, and adopt one of the two simple and obvious solutions to this problem.
The first option is to split the lunch period as food service vendor Sodexho has suggested.
Clubs that meet during lunch might have to reschedule their meetings to before or after school, and that’s too bad, but that’s a lower priority than making sure students eat so that they can learn in the afternoon.
That lunchtime handball games would no longer be possible is simply not a concern at all.
The second option is to extend the lunch period – and the school day – by about 15 minutes.
Assistant Superintendent Steve Brinkman told reporter Christopher Quirk that the current 33-minute lunch period isn’t enough time to serve all 2,400 GHS students. The obvious fix, then, is to add some time – we think 15 minutes ought to do it – so that all students can purchase food and eat it.
Both steps are important.
In theory, this problem will go away when Christopher High School opens in 2009. Let’s hope so.
But in the meantime, it is incumbent upon GHS and GUSD officials to make sure that all students have time to buy and eat lunch, if, as Rosso said, “our purpose is to promote learning and academic achievement.”
