Let
them eat lunch!
Schools wrestle with limited
space and time in the cafeteria
Sunday, October 23, 2005 • BY BEV McCARRON •
Star-Ledger Staff
When he talks about lunch at his Essex
County middle school, Principal John Calicchio sounds like a
military strategist.
He calculates precisely how many minutes
it takes students to get to the cafeteria and how long it
takes two custodians, posted like sentries, to clean dirty
tables for the next group.
Minutes are precious at Franklin Middle
School in Nutley, where Calicchio's staff has 21 minutes per
lunch period and 700 children to feed. Cafeteria aides scoot
stragglers to get them moving before the next wave. Kitchen
workers quickly restock food in the small window of time
when the line lets up. Kids complain they don't have enough
time to eat.
"You have to stuff yourself -- like six
fries in a minute," said eighth-grader Karen Guerro, who on
a recent day was nearly last in line and had only 13 minutes
to eat.
With New Jersey schools packing more
instruction time into their days, bursting with students and
battling facilities that haven't kept up with growth,
principals and food service directors are scheduling more
and shorter lunch periods just so they can get everyone
fed.
In extreme examples, some schools have
cut lunch periods to just 17 minutes.
"We're just trying to work in the
confines of our space," said Calicchio, who hopes lunchtime
will double when the school and its 150-seat cafeteria is
expanded in 2007.
These increasing speed lunches clash with
growing concern about child obesity and nutrition, and New
Jersey has responded with strict, new school lunch
guidelines banning fatty and unhealthy foods, effective in
2007. Tucked into the new rules is a request to give
students adequate time to eat. A study by the National
Association of State Boards of Education says students
should have 20 minutes to actually sit and eat.
The School Nutrition Association in
Alexandria, Va., which found the average lunch period in
elementary schools has dropped from 30 minutes to 23.7 in
the past few years, would like to see lunch periods back at
30 minutes. One worry is that kids in a hurry might take
time only to snack.
"If they don't have adequate time, they
are more likely to get food from other venues: the vending
machine, or fundraisers, or bring something from home. And
research shows, the school lunch is the healthiest meal
option," said Erik Peterson of the school boards
association. "It's important to have time to digest
it."
NO PERFECT FORMULA
Yet, with schools facing with a space
crunch, as well as being pushed to squeeze more learning
into each day, school officials say they can't spare any
more time. Many say the kids seem able to adjust, and to
help them, cafeterias have added extra lines or food
stations to cut the lines.
East Brunswick offers an "EZ pass lunch"
in some cafeterias, a prepacked sack students can buy
quickly.
"We need to reassure people from time to
time that the kids have time to eat -- because they do,"
said Trish LaDuca, spokeswoman for the district, which gives
students in elementary and middle school between 20 and 25
minutes to eat.
According to Kathy Kuser, the food and
nutrition director in the Department of Agriculture, which
oversees school lunches, some New Jersey schools had
whittled lunches down to as short as 17 minutes in the past,
but a recent check of districts showed that most had gone
back to at least 20 minutes.
"Food services directors, nine times out
of 10, wish they had more time to get food for kids.
Certainly, they would like a longer time for kids to really
be able to sit and eat and digest their meal," Kuser said.
But "most school food services directors would say they
can't, due to time limitations, building structures and
schedules."
Phillipsburg High School officials say
they wish they could lengthen lunch. Once 30 minutes long,
the lunch period is now 23 minutes. It was shortened after a
fifth lunch period was added because of
overcrowding.
"They still do not have a long time to
eat," said Jackie Attinello, assistant superintendent. "By
the time they go to their locker and get in line, they might
get only 10 minutes."
To pack in extra learning time, Green
Brook Middle School a few years ago reduced lunch to 23
minutes, with the additional time spent in arts programs,
extended reading or, in the lower grades, recess.
"You do have children who take a long
time to eat and don't fit into the mold of a 20-minute
lunch," Principal Linda Pollard said. But she added that,
for the most part, if you "watch the children, you'll see
they're done eating and talking."
BEATING THE CROWD
Like many districts, Indian Hills
Elementary School in Holmdel, with an enrollment of roughly
800 kids, splits the lunch periods in half -- 22 minutes to
eat and an equal time for recess. When one group eats, the
other plays.
Still, Assistant Principal Brian
Schillaci had to tack on an extra lunch period last year.
Schillaci worried about serving lunch at 10:50 a.m. but
found lunch runs more smoothly with fewer students in the
cafeteria.
"The kids complained because we had too
many trying to get through the lunch lines," Schillaci said.
"It was an impossibility."
At Franklin Middle School, where kids
switch between a 21-minute lunch and a study hall of the
same length, Cassandra Maldonado, an eighth-grader, was a
pink blur in a velour sweat suit and sneakers, as she dashed
in from study hall while the first lunch crew streamed out,
eager to be first in line.
Other students shrugged off the short
lunch period, saying they manage to finish their
food.
"This isn't perfect," Principal Calicchio
said. "But it works for us."
Bev McCarron works in the Somerset County bureau. She may
be reached at bmccarron@starledger.com or at (908) 429-9925.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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