When class ends and it’s time for lunch, hundreds of students rush to the cafeteria. The lines are long and students have to wait to receive their lunch. Some students don’t even eat lunch because of the large lines. Several students will cut in line, and take food. Sometimes it’s hard to walk past people because of the crowd of students. We should have more places for students to grab lunch.

I understand the need of keeping track of the amount of meals being eaten everyday. I believe having more places to receive lunch would help slow down the traffic between students. Also allowing some students a few minutes out of class before lunch starts would allow students to have enough time to grab their food and find a place to eat without feeling crowded by swarming students. With the rise in Covid cases I believe this would be most beneficial in preventing students catching Covid, and keeping distance from each other.

Maddie Smith stated the cafeteria is busy, annoying, and is not Covid safe. She thinks having more space to grab lunch could be improved.

Another student at Big Sky, Ammarie Sowers wishes it was a bigger space. She also has a problem with some of the students in the lunchroom, “They are mean, they push me, they unzip my backpack. I’ve had someone try to steal my wallet.” She also told me during the interview there are a lot of students, and they are loud and yell at each other.

I interviewed Tim Cardarelli, our custodian. He told me they have to rent a storage space because during the renovation they lost space to place things, and there is no money to redo or fix it. What he thought could be improved for our lunch is to have several lunch periods for students.

With the information from our staff and students from Big Sky High School about the cafeteria, we need to improve the situation we have now. There are too many students surrounded in one area, it is very crowded, definitely not Covid safe, and students are not respecting each other’s personal space.