When it comes to the controversial topic of off campus lunch, several authoritative figures jump to conclusions concerning the negative impacts and dangers of the opportunity. However, there are a multitude of benefits that derive from this privilege; seniors heading to college need to learn responsibility, time management, and accountability; with the introduction of off campus lunch, all of these essential life skills are present and positively reflected throughout the entire student body.
The opportunity of off campus lunch institutes a fundamental base of trust between the students and the school, validating that “educators and administrators in a school system want to establish and nurture the best relationships possible with the students”
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because “An essential cornerstone to this type of relationship involves trust.” The trust that is instilled within the relationship between the student body and a school is highly valuable because, as students, “they will feel a greater sense of respect from teachers and others,” providing a relationship that is applicable later life. As well as providing insurance due to the trust established with the students at school, parents will be able to have that final check of approval before their child heads off to college. It is reassuring for parents to know that their child is responsible while they are not around. Off campus lunch is the ultimate final test of responsibility because it “allows students the freedom to make choices… and that’s very important as kids get older.” This prospect ensures that students are able to manage their time so they can get back to school in a timely fashion while showcasing accountability by returning to school. Having trust within the students overall aids in the development of their maturity and responsibility because they have a special opportunity that will be meaningful to them if it is taken away. Also, if the lunch is closed off to seniors, an incentive is provided for underclassmen and other seniors to work hard towards success. After all, having off campus lunch is a privilege and incentive for students to develop responsibility with not only their studies but in every day life. Another factor that is present within the debate over off campus lunch is that there are dangers such as a time crunch with getting back to school on time and students not returning to school after the lunch break: “If you give the entire school permission to leave the grounds for lunch, that vast majority of them are going to come back.
Unfortunately, a few won’t.” However, these possibilities are present every school day whether off campus lunch is an option or not. There is nothing holding kids back from leaving school whenever they want other than the consequences that they will face later on, so it shouldn’t be any different if an off campus lunch program is instituted. A main factor that is present alongside kids not returning to school is students getting hurt: “Regulating the safety of the students is one of the most important considerations a school must face on a day-to-day basis… the notion of letting kids leave the grounds for lunch is something that fills parents and educators alike with a strong sense of trepidation.” Nevertheless, school traffic would be just as busy, if not less busy, when students are leaving and returning for lunch than it is when going to or leaving school because it is only a small fraction of the student body that will meet all of the criteria and actually be able to drive. Students who do not meet certain criteria based on grades, attendance, and disciplinary records wouldn’t be able to participate in off campus lunch also lessening the number of students. If schools are concerned about having kids leave campus who are not allowed to, then a system of identification, or passes, for the students who qualify can be given to the students that have earned the
right. After all, off campus lunch is a privilege, not a right, which countless students miss out on. The opportunity to allow students to develop indispensable life skills such as responsibility, accountability, and time management is being deprived from them as a way to force them into an impenetrable box where they will never be able to get hurt. But, by allowing students the opportunity to grow as a person out in the real world, for even just an hour a day, can prove to be more helpful than anything else a school system can provide.
Janet Poppendieck is a professor of sociology at Hunter College in New York, and is the author of several books, including her most recent Free for All: Fixing School Food in America. This book centers on America’s recent interest in whether or not our school lunches are healthy. This issue has been put into the spotlight recently through shows such as Jamie Oliver’s School Food Revolution and in the news because of recent changes in the Nation School Lunch Program’s dietary guidelines. Poppendieck’s book looks at the in depth reasons why school lunches have turned into what they are today, what challenges need to be faced in order to fix school lunches, and ultimately how the system should be fixed. She accomplishes this by interviewing her current college students about their previous school lunch experiences, working in a school cafeteria, interviewing current school employees, and looking at the history and policies of the National School Lunch Program.
The University of a Florida offers meal plans for students who wish to have a meal ready for them rather than worrying about what they are going to eat, or perhaps cook, throughout the day. The problem with this idea however, is that students oftentimes do not take full advantage of this system. Whether it is cooking, eating out, or even going home on the weekends, there are several factors that can get in the way of taking full advantage of the meal plan. This dilemma often leaves families asking the same question: is buying the meal plan that is provided by colleges actually worth the money? While buying a meal plan for college appears to make sense for many incoming freshmen, it does not always translate into the most efficient use of their money.
Yet, with personal experience in having worked in a cubicle setting and being a student, I often found myself looking forward to lunch as much to eat as to socialize with coworkers and friends. In a passage of her article, Widdicombe describes visiting Caltech and witnessing dinnertime, in which most “Skurves” were laying out dishes to get ready for dinner. However, a small minority of students sat surrounded by laptops and problem sets, nursing bottles of Soylent, ignoring the dinnertime commotion. Although they are being arguably more productive in their usage of time, they are missing out on socializing with their peers, an essential part of the college experience. In addition to nutritional value, meals offer an outlet for self-expression, bonding, and socializing that would be lost if everyone were to say- be carrying around a water bottle with a days supply of
To begin, the high school principles and the school district can put restrictions on who’s allowed to leave the campus for lunch. The student’s parents make the ultimate decision of whether they will allow their child to go off-campus for lunch. In order for students to go off-campus, they will need to have a written consent slip filled out by their parents and handed in to the office, as well as a pass when leaving campus. The students who are continuously tardy or absent should not be allowed to have this privilege. If the students are allowed to have off-campus lunch, so should the staff members. Although they’re staff they shouldn’t be treated any different, they should at least have a pass for leaving campus. Most importantly the students of Oak Creek High School should be at least 16 years of age, and must have good grades with a GPA of at least 2.8 or higher. Plus the school resource officers (SRO) may stop and question the students, at any time.
First, there is a lot of benefits for open campus lunch. Open campus lunch gives all of the students an opportunity to learn responsibility. It is also a great way to teach them how to interact with the real world. It can make all student better adults in the future. They will learn from open campus lunch to not make big mistake.Once they get used to having open campus lunch, when they graduate they will know what to expect, because
Wandering kids. Bumper to bumper traffic. Drug dealing. Is this the picture drawn when local students have fifty minutes of freedom during lunch to do whatever they please? Students should not be allowed to leave their school campus during lunch. An open campus would lead to truancy, disturb local businesses and neighborhoods, and cause crime.
For the majority of high school students having the option to go home for lunch or to go somewhere to eat would be the ultimate dream. High school students do not think about the dangers and worry that open campus lunch would cause for staff and parents. They do not think about the small sum of students who would spend that time doing drugs or making messes at local businesses. There would also be an amount of students who would not return, or they may be late returning to school due to traffic at fast food places. Faculty would also have the fret of an increase of car accidents caused from the limited time students would have to go wherever and get back before their next class. On the other hand, students would learn responsibilities and time management. Parents would be forced to give their children money to eat out. Along with the money on their school lunch accounts, or they would be apart of the free lunch school program. Schools cannot have open campus lunches
Every student in all grades were able to leave during the time a scheduled class did not occupy. (Saslow, Linda. “Schools split on “open campus” NYtimes.com). Open campus lunch is the allowance of high school students to leave off the premises to a local restaurant for the duration of lunch. School districts in America have opposed open campus lunch benefits due to common knowledge and concern for potential student endangerment. A reason why schools should change educational environment would be to accommodate what students’ need to create comfortable working conditions. Old school methods included the repetitive process of helping students through daily material every day of the week with one break. Off campus school lunch was an unknown factor to high schools back
Some dining locations are open past 8:00 PM several nights of the week on-campus. However, many of these eating facilities are relatively unknown to a large portion of the underclassmen. Most are located under dorms and hidden from the student’s eyes. They are also incapable of holding a large amount of students simply because they don’t have the room.
Wu, Sarah. Fed up with Lunch: How One Anonymous Teacher Revealed the Truth about School Lunches--and How to Change Them! San Francisco, CA: Chronicle, 2011. E
With the implementation of the “Healthy Kids Hunger-Free Act” schools are not serving as many lunches and participation is decreasing. According to the Government Accountability Office (GOA), “Nationwide, student participation declined by 1.2 million students(or 3.7 percent) from school year 2010-2011 through school year 2012-2013, after having increased steadily for many years”(sec. 1). The school lunches became more distasteful and bland; the combinations of foods did not make sense, and the portion sizes decreased significantly. In order to support the cafeteria
Toly, D. (2005). "What's in the Package?" Rethinking Grab-and-Go Lunches. Journal of Nutrition Education & Behavior, 37S113-S114.
Why is this a problem? Cafeteria food is often cheap, bought in bulk, high in calories, malnutritious, and microwaved. Student polls and opinions prove this. Therefore, this leads to a suggestion: Healthier, tastier foods and a better, more advanced lunch system should be implemented. First of all, students aren’t motivated to eat unhealthy, not-tasty food.
Further, students also now have time to run other urgent errands. Now that students have the luxury of eating on campus students can now use their excess time to run errands. It is common for students to have multiple things to do, in situations like that students sacrifice a meal in order to complete urgent errands. This won 't be a factor if DSU allows private food vendors on campus.
The cafeteria is not merely a place for small children; now that I am in college, I spend more time in the cafeteria than ever. Living in the dorms, I have no kitchen or any other place to cook. Instead, I have a meal plan that offers me fourteen meals each week at the Stanford/Hecht cafeteria. I eat lunch and dinner there as my two meals on most days. But, I do not and cannot go to the cafeteria and just get food. I get much more.