Students Should Stop Cutting the Cafeteria Lines

By: Jasleen Donado

Just a couple months ago, construction seemed to slow down in the cafeteria and the space wasn’t as reduced. This partially helped the problem and the lines felt a bit less crowded, but the problem persisted. Many students realized that only certain foods were served in certain lines so there would be two lines with people trying to force themselves through the door, while there were two completely empty lines. Cafeteria workers did their best to solve this problem by serving all foods at all lines. Just when it felt like the cutting problem would be something from Hayward High’s past, construction in the cafeteria resumed once again and the problem came back. The cafeteria workers came up with another solution and decided to open up another food station by D-Hall, in hopes of finally putting an end to this conflict. Getting food during nutrition and lunch has become a more pleasant experience for Farmers. But as always, there will always be some students trying to save their time by cutting the lines and making lunch a longer process than it needs to be. Is all this traffic jam being caused by the reduced space in the cafeteria or are some students too ambitious to eat lunch food?

Most Farmers at Hayward High love getting food during nutrition break and lunch, but recently it has become a problem for many students. Since the beginning of this school year, it has become apparent that more students than ever are deciding to cut the lunch lines. Large groups of students would make their way all the way towards the front and would try to squish themselves through the doors. This would then cause the lines to never make any progress as all the lines would end up blending into each other. These crowded lines were only worsened by the construction that was happening at the time, which was taking over half of the cafeteria space, making students feel extremely squished. Many students have commented saying that they feel the need to rush to get in line, “If I make it to the cafeteria 5 minutes after lunch has started, I already know it’s going to take me all of lunch to get my food.” Other students say that they don’t even bother to get food during nutrition because the cutting is just as bad and the time is more limited.