With the new schedule in place, Choate students must now adapt to several drastic changes, one of which is the new lunch blocks. To fix the issue of students not having time to eat lunch on a daily basis, this year’s schedule includes a two-hour block with designated times for students to have the chance to eat in the dining hall. However, with the new and heavy concentration of students during these two 40-minute lunch blocks, there are many days when students don’t have time to make their way through the lunch lines and eat their lunch. The lunch hours in the dining hall are 10:45 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and 11:00 a.m.-1:45 a.m. on Thursdays. This means that most of the school only has the designated lunch blocks to enjoy their lunch. Students and faculty now face long lunch lines, like the ones we knew from Wednesday afternoons last year, on a daily basis. Students who only have 40 minutes to get lunch are waiting for 20 minutes in line to get that buffalo chicken sandwich. Then students face the problem of finding an open table, and by the time they sit down it’s nearly time to go to class again. It might be possible to make a sandwich from the deli bar or pour a quick bowl of soup, but should Choate students be asked to eat lunch on-the-go for every day of the week? Most students prefer—if not outright need—to enjoy the best items that the dining hall has to offer while having meaningful and nourishing conversations with their friends.
To fix the constant overflow of people in the dining hall during lunch hours, there is a simple solution: if Choate were to extend hot breakfast hours into conference period, there would be many students who would not feel the need to eat lunch an hour later. Currently, the dining hall stops serving breakfast at 8:30 a.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and 9:00 a.m. on Thursdays. Now that there is a conference block from 9:10 a.m. – 9:40 a.m. every day, many students (and likely faculty members, too) would be able to grab a bite during the Conference block, instead of during those jam-packed, frenetic lunch blocks.
Members of the Choate dining hall service may need to prepare for the next meal, which is perhaps why they shut down the hot food bar early. There is no need to leave the omelet bar or waffle station open if they need to prepare food for lunch. Instead, SAGE could offer the simpler food items, like eggs, potatoes, bacon, or sausage. This would allow for students who have early classes or even sleep-ins to have time to get to breakfast. But more importantly, there will be fewer Choate students forced to go to the dining hall during lunch blocks because of their empty stomach.
If the Choate administration wants its students to be able to have a good, nutritious meal in a timely manner, then it should consider extending breakfast hours in order to control the flow of members of the community in the dining hall.
right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain.
