The problem with feeding 250 people at one time
There are a few glaring problems with the lunchroom.
My lunchroom experience is not particularly a good one, as I often find myself eating only fruit for lunch. This isn’t because I am a picky eater, a vegan, or on an extreme diet, but because the salad bar is the only bar without a crazy long line. The biggest problem is that the lunchroom isn’t in a good location. If you think about it, our lunchroom is basically a hallway that isn’t big enough for an ideal amount of serving bars.
Working with the location they have, the kitchen staff does a lot to shorten lines. For example, they often put the most popular foods out in more than one location, as well as make sure that kids in second lunch don’t try to grab some food on their way to class. Paul Babel, the Executive Chef at the Upper School, says that although there is a space issue, there will always be the issue of having to feed 250 people at one time (twice a day). Babel encourages students to ponder, “if you had 250 kids who needed to eat all at once how would you feed them?”
At this point the kitchen staff has done their part, and students need to do theirs. Maggie Warner ‘16 expresses her opinion on the matter: “It [the length of the lines] depends on what lunch you’re in. First lunch takes pretty long unless you budge people. Second lunch is pretty short.” I couldn’t agree more; people need to go to their correct lunch. To some extent, going to the wrong lunch isn’t even worth it because of the long wait that you have to endure.
Warner also makes a great point by saying that “lunch lines are really disorganized even though the cafeteria people try to organize them. This disorganization ends up slowing lines down.” The kitchen staff has also noticed the unorganization and unruly behavior. This behavior is unnecessary and disrespectful to our kitchen staff, and ends up hurting us.
In addition to going to your correct lunch and being respectful in line, I encourage you to just wait a couple minutes for the lines to die down. After all, the kitchen staff is serving around 500 people, and there isn’t a way to eliminate lines completely.
