Lanphier Cafe houses busy, quiet students over lunch blocks. Photo by Pinn Chirathivat/The Choate News
The topic of the 40-minute lunch block has been thoroughly discussed in the community. However, we tend to skim over one aspect of the average Choate student’s weekly lunch schedule — the habit of skipping lunch between STEM classes.
Many students find it pointless to walk the 10 minutes up to the dining hall, shovel food into their bodies, wait in a long line to return silverware, and rush back up to the other side of campus to attend their next STEM class. Because of the hassle, they have adopted the unhealthy habit of skipping a full meal for lunch in favor of coffee and snacks from Lanphier Café. However, in doing so, students lose the nutrition and experience of a meal in the Dining Hall.
It’s only expected that they serve salads and sandwiches at Lanphier — after all, it is a cafe. Though tasty, however, these snacks lack the nutrition required in a full meal. Yes, the fruit and bagel table — a relatively new addition to the Lanphier experience — feeds hungry students not trekking to Hill House, but these snacks simply cannot suffice as full meals.
Last year, on the days I had chemistry, lunch, and then precalculus, I’d skip full meals at the dining hall and spend the time at Lanphier. Some days I would just buy a coffee and deem it nutritional enough to constitute a whole meal. It was a bad habit, I know. Eating only once or twice a day — or worse, having only a coffee for a meal — was so unhealthy. It was no surprise that trading my health for convenience left me fatigued for the rest of the day.
Another integral part of the lunch experience is the togetherness at the table. The dining hall’s social environment not only promotes lively conversation but is a much-needed break from the academic day. The Lanphier Café, on the other hand, houses quiet, working Choate students — not the proper ambiance for a meal. If anything, the quiet atmosphere contributes to the stress that we all face at one point or another. Spending the lunch block at Lanphier can only be detrimental to the well-being of Choate students.
Choate has a problem on its hands. The School must either provide better resources for those spending their lunch block at Lanphier or encourage students to stop skipping meals because it’s more convenient. It goes without saying that academics are important, but we mustn’t forget that our health is even more so.
