Do We Need Lunch?

Jay Mathews’ suggestion that we eliminate lunch or even cafeterias would delight most administrators. I know that thirty years of standing on tile floors in school cafeterias takes a toll on the feet, legs, and back. Ouch! Jay has visited my school and he knows what a well-run cafeteria can and should look like at lunch.

I know a principal who did eliminate lunch, but not for the reasons Jay mentioned. This principal had so many fights and disturbances that he rearranged the schedule and put lunch at the end of the day. Instead of eating lunch, the students went home. Voila! No more fights. Problem solved!

Suggest eliminating lunch to my good friend, Mike Kakuska, the former principal at Roswell High School in Roswell, NM, and he would immediately ask you, “When would my kids eat?” In 2004, the first year of the program, our schools were both named NASSP-MetLife Foundation Breakthrough Schools, which are high-performing, high-poverty secondary schools. Breakthrough Schools must overcome tremendous obstacles to help each and every student succeed. Of the twelve schools named that year, our two schools were the only non-magnet, non-alternative, neighborhood schools. We didn’t sort applications. We served anyone who showed up at our door.

Even though we were located 2,000 miles apart, our schools shared a common characteristic. A number of our students relied heavily on federally subsidized breakfast and lunch programs. Mike told many stories of students who ate nothing from the time they left his school on Friday until they returned Monday morning. Mike’s first goal as principal was, not to make AYP, but to feed his hungry students.

Eliminating lunch would mean that many of our students would not eat. The cafeteria in our schools was a necessity not a luxury. Our students could not afford to grab a burger after school. If we didn’t feed them, they did not eat.

I worked for one year in a high school with an open campus at lunch before closing the campus the following year. Apart from the massive safety and security issues schools face with open campuses and open lunch hours, the worst part was how it segregated and divided the students.  The poorest students ate in the cafeteria. That was all they could afford. The middle class students ate at a variety of nearby eateries. A third group of students qualified for the free lunch program but were too proud to eat with the “poor kids.” So, they chose to go hungry. Everyone knew who the poor kids were. It broke my heart!

Jay’s article illustrates the great divide in education. We read constantly about firing principals and closing down underperforming schools with never a mention of the poverty that these schools must help their students overcome. Any principal would rather have their students E-A-T than make AYP.