“I’m sick of always having to switch tables every day because the table we usually sit at is either missing or somebody takes it,” said Jessica Wittenberg (10). Sitting on the floor during lunch is disgusting and just unsanitary. This is an everyday occurrence for some Northern students because there is not enough tables for them all. The lunches are so crowded that there is no place to sit, and there are students that want to stand in the middle of the walkway that crowd everybody out. Students that sit on the floor have to eat their food where others walk and put their backpacks down.  It’s just gross. No one should have to eat their food in an unsanitary place at this school.

This is not the only problem in lunch. Since there are so  many students in each lunch, it takes students  20 minutes  to get their lunches and then they have 5 minutes  to scarf down their food in order to  make it to class on time. In these crazy lines for each, there are people that cut and just think that it is okay. The pizza, main entree, and taco line are the most crowded. Students getting mad because they get cut in line and there is already not time to eat lunch with the amount of students. Kids standing right next to a table crowding somebody  while they  are trying to eat is really annoying. Some students do this because they can’t sit all together at one table. “ I’m sick of having to tell them to move because they are so close to me when I’m trying to eat,” said Gracie Hatfield (9). A table by the office always has students standing right next to it. Nobody really wants a butt in their face when they are trying to eat. This would drive anybody crazy. Why would somebody  want a butt in his or her  face when they are trying to enjoy your pizza?

There needs to be more tables and there should also be a 3rd lunch. If we had a 3rd lunch, it would not be as crowded, and we would have time to eat our lunch and not have to scarf it down. This would fix so many problems for students. The first lunch could be after 3rd hour, 2nd hour could be after 4th hour, and 3rd lunch could be after 5th hour.

The school does provide lunch passes but only for Juniors and Seniors, yes, there are a lot of them but they should provide a lunch pass for sophomores that can drive as well. This would make the lunch room less crowded and underclassmen a chance to leave the school as well as upper classmen.  “I have my own car and all I get to use it for is coming to school and leaving, I want to leave for lunch since I have my own car,” said Jordon Summons (10).

Portage Northern can change the way lunches are with simple fixes; the students just have to express our concerns more about the lunches and maybe we can add that 3rd lunch or get sophomores their lunch passes. We just have to work hard and change what we want to change.