PETITION

-FOR-

The Sedro-Woolley School Board to require that the children at Big Lake Elementary receive a minimum of 20 minutes at the lunch table to eat their food -not to be taken away from their recess time.

Adults are protected under Washington State Labor Laws to receive a minimum 30 minute lunch at work, but our children are not afforded the same protection. Wednesday, January 6, 2017, the 2nd and 3rd graders had a 10 minute lunch. The 1st graders were also informed they would have a short lunch that day and one boy had enough time to eat just a cheese stick and drink his juice. This is not an isolated incident; short lunches have been an ongoing issue at Big Lake. This issue has been addressed over the year by different parents with both the superintendent and principal and while steps were made in the right direction, the issue persists. That is why we are calling on the School Board to set the standard; to communicate the importance of lunch time and breaks for our children. We, the parents, would like time for lunch and breaks for our children to be seen as non-negotiable meaning that when there is a time crunch, staff may not take time away from the children’s lunch or recess time. Setting this standard would mean you support the promotion of health and wellness in our schools and common sense as well as many studies tell us that healthy kids perform better at school.