You line up for lunch at school. The line is moving at a snail’s pace, and the cafeteria is gradually getting louder. The space is bustling with students and their conversations that overwhelmingly fill every table. When you finally receive your food, there is nowhere to sit comfortably and the lunch period is already halfway over. No time to talk to your friends and eat your food without a rush.  

This is how it can feel at schools like Taylorsville High School, which implemented a new one-lunch schedule for the 2025-2026 school year.  With this new bell schedule, all students and teachers are given a shared, single lunch period. The school has added an additional five minutes to the overall time, bringing it to 40 minutes.

But even with that extra time, it still isn’t enough for students to socialize, relax, and eat their food comfortably. The cafeteria is always bustling to the brim with people.

“With the lunchroom.. It feels suffocating almost,” said Sophomore Katie Manchester (real name withheld). “Finding a seat in the lunchroom can be hard since there’s a lot of people. It’s kinda first come first serve.”

First come first serve isn’t practical when students’ classes are across the school and the hallways quickly fill up, with hundreds of teenagers leaving their classes at the same time. Students are left without places to sit. This kind of disruption leaves kids feeling anxious, stressed, and frustrated. 

“Food is vital to culture and relationship-building,” wrote Julia Ransom in an April 10 article for EdSource. “[It teaches] kids important lessons of socialization and connection that endure for life.” 

The cafeteria is a staple for the growing youth. A longer lunch time helps balance the academic pressures of all the different classes that high schoolers are enrolled in. It gives kids time to socialize and take a breather. Most importantly, it allows students to ease their hunger. 

Lunchtime provides nutrition for the school, and especially for those who don’t have food steadily available at home. Free lunch program benefits assist with that, so even more students are consuming the food provided. In fact, around 45% of Taylorsville High School students qualify for lunch assistance programs, according to SchoolDigger.

Without enough time to eat, there is more food going to waste. Students will either eat their food unhealthily quickly, or will throw it out completely before they even finish to get to class. According to WWF, 530,000 tons of food are estimated as potential waste from schools each year. 

Food waste contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, according to Move for Hunger. The emissions then contribute to climate change. It is a major issue the planet is facing, and food wastage only worsens it. There must be enough time for everyone to eat in order to reduce this major environmental issue that impacts the Earth. 

Longer lunch times have been linked to positive behavior. For example, A system at Ben Lemond High School in Ogden, Utah, rewarded students with extra lunch time when they kept grades up and got to class on time.

It proved to have a positive effect, as the number of students’ tardies was practically cut in half in the middle of the year. Those who did not meet the standards stayed in tutoring or in a study hall during the extra time, which is a fair consequence. 

Thus, if Taylorsville High School implemented a longer time for lunch, there would likely be positive correlations with education, such as reduced tardiness.

Another issue with the short, condensed period is that it is difficult to find seating. 

“Everyone always takes the tables,” said Sophomore Amy Baker. “Unless you’re quick with it.”

It’s very crowded. This poses a clear issue: there is an abundance of students, and not enough seating. As a result of this insufficient seating, difficult crowds form in other places near the school.

“For instance… 7/11 or McDonald’s; they’re always really crowded,” Baker continued. “If you go to McDonald’s at lunch, you usually end up being late because of how crowded it is.”

There aren’t enough places for students to sit down and really just sit and breathe comfortably. Not just at the school but also in nearby establishments. They fill up quickly, and it leads to longer lines in both the school and off-campus, no matter what. 

As a result, if students leave the campus to find food elsewhere, they often end up arriving tardy to their class. Mainly because of the amount of time spent waiting for their meal.

It is a big problem, especially because the majority of these locations commonly visited by students are close by: just down or across the street from the school. It’s a short five or ten-minute walk, but a long wait. 

“My school gets full because… it’s pretty big, but there’s a lot of kids too,” said Naomi Molina, a sophomore at Cyprus High School in Magna, Utah. “It gets a little crazy. The nearby restaurants also get pretty full during lunch.” 

Taylorsville isn’t the only school in Granite School District with issues regarding a one-lunch schedule. 

“If you don’t have a table ‘claimed,’ it can be pretty difficult. I think lunch should be extended by at least five minutes,” Molina continued. “Since the school’s so full, if you try to get lunch, there’s not a lot of time. Extending the lunch period by at least five minutes will give you time to get lunch and eat peacefully.”

This further adds to the issue of having to grab food quickly, or there won’t be enough time to settle, eat, and socialize. Stretching the time of the lunch period from 40 minutes to closer to an hour would cut down on tardiness from students. It would increase attendance from those who choose to stay outside or get food elsewhere, like a restaurant.

Students with no comfortable place to sit during the period have to resort to other places, like outdoors. Groups or individuals have even gone to sit in the upstairs hallways or staircases as a result of the overcrowding. Those areas are where it is less crowded and slightly less noisy. 

“It is pretty crowded,” said English teacher Alex Lore. “Especially around the cafeteria.. It even kinda spills up into the second floor.” 

Yet, the upstairs is noted to be off-limits for food. However, students really have nowhere else to go that isn’t overwhelming and uncomfortable. 

 “We try to tell the students to not be there,” Lore continued. “But at the same time we really don’t have that much space for people to sit, especially if they want to be somewhere not as crowded.”

In recent school announcements, it has been repeated several times that students are not allowed to eat or sit upstairs at all. Administrators have started roaming the second story to ensure that students are not breaking these rules.  The library is the only place upstairs where students are allowed to reside during lunch, but even then, it is full and loud like the cafeteria.

So where else can students sit down now? Where else can they go where seats are not being taken up? What about somewhere where it is quiet? Seats are available outside, but what will happen when it is freezing cold or rainy, and students have no choice but to go back to the noisy indoors? 

With this new rule, students are now forced to one floor instead of two, further enhancing the state of overcrowding and tardiness than before. The issues with seating are far more prominent now than they originally were, especially for those who are further away from the cafeteria at the start of lunch. Adding seating availability would be a major help, such as installing benches throughout the school, and moving the outdoor seating inside during winter time. 

Taylorsville’s one-lunch schedule is exciting because it is a new change. Previously, the period was split into 2: an A lunch and a B lunch. By getting rid of this system, it reduced confusion among students and reduced their absences as they didn’t skip their assigned lunch or classes for reasons like visiting their friends. Now, everyone eats at the same time.

It is commonly noted that people either working at or attending this school want to have a longer lunch period. The 40 minutes are not enough for an entire school to be excused from class at the same time and get food, socialize, or decompress. Thus, adding even five minutes to the period and a few more seating areas would be a major help in getting kids proper nutrition, and improving their attendance.