Ygnacio Valley High School currently has two lunches, Lunch A and Lunch B. Which is based on your 4th-period class. Many of us students would prefer to have one lunch and here is why.

To build a community we need to expand our relationships, and in our current situation, it is very limited. Teacher-student communication will decrease, friends will be separated, and which will leave us with an empty feeling. This forces us, students, to get help before or after school and many of us will be occupied with extracurricular activities, work, etc. Clubs and meetings will also be difficult to join/attend during lunch.

With two lunches, comes new rules which also limit what we do. For example, the rule that prevents us, students at lunch, to enter hallways holds us back from being prepared for our next class. As well as the idea that all students are to be in the quad during lunch, considering there aren’t enough tables and seats, most are just standing around. And to those who are in class during lunch, are ripped from their right to use the bathroom. With the excuse of “kids cutting class to go with their friends during lunch” or something along those lines, would not happen if we stayed with the traditional ONE LUNCH.

If you compare Ygnacio Valley HS to other high schools in the MDUSD district, the population is smaller here. With a total of approximately 1,200 students enrolled, we are told that the school cannot feed that many people at once. Other schools like Mt Diablo, Concord, College Park, and Northgate, have a student population ranging from 1,300-2,000 students. And those schools all have ONE lunch.

So please, let’s go back to the traditional one lunch schedule.