Many students come into school waiting for lunch to finally get a break, but some students don’t even eat. We commonly see full trays at lunch and kids asking you for extra snacks or food. Why is that? Well, it may be because kids cannot eat school lunch, not because it tastes bad or looks gross, but because it affects their physical health. 

The School Nutrition Association states that about 13% of students have a food allergy, which would be about 260 kids in Bob Jones High School. These allergies can include nuts, gluten, dairy, etc. Many of these are not taken into consideration when preparing school food. It might seem easy to avoid certain foods, but what if almost every food in lunch that day includes your allergen? Then you are going to your last classes with nothing in your stomach but canned peaches. 

Student Aspen Mabes has a gluten allergy like many kids at Bob Jones and claims that he often cannot eat school lunch, or not very much of it. For example, last week chicken was served almost every day, all of which was breaded. This is an allergy risk for students with gluten sensitivity. 

In a survey conducted to see how often students skip lunch, most student responses say that they skip lunch or cannot eat much of their lunch almost every day. Students responding to the survey state, “I bring my lunch or just don’t eat at all, sometimes up to once or twice a week,” “3/5 days a week.” and “almost always.” 

While this may not seem like a major issue to most, not being able to eat can severely affect students’ learning during the day. A Gazette – Story provides us with some important insight into what skipping lunch can do to our bodies and minds. The article explains that our bodies run on glucose, which we get from food, stating, “Glucose is what powers our brains, and without sufficient amounts of this chemical throughout the day, your brain will not be able to function properly.” With the lack of glucose that comes from lunch, students may struggle to focus on keeping up with their assignments and maintaining good test scores. 

Not getting enough glucose makes it difficult for students to function throughout the day and keep their moods positive. If school work is difficult for students, teachers also have to suffer by putting in extra effort to help students with dropping scores and missing assignments, students being in bad moods, may have more behavioral issues, causing teachers to have to multitask teaching while keeping their students under control. 

Additionally, many kids have sports and work after school and simply do not have time to eat, making lunch even more important so they can focus and function in their lives outside of school. 

In the previously mentioned survey, students were asked how school lunch could be improved. An overwhelming amount of those responses said more diverse and inclusive lunch options. Responses included, “More inclusive food for different disabilities or allergies,” “I think more options would be cool. A lot of the food in the vending machines are unused (such as the peanuts and cashews that serve as an allergy risk),” and “Having more options for people who may not be able to eat certain things due to religious beliefs or health reasons.” 

So, the question is: What difference could we see if every student was able to eat lunch every single day? Many students would bet on positive change.