Students drift through the hallways toward their third block, noses lifting at the smells wafting from the lunchroom. Their stomachs rumble at the thought of the appetizing food awaiting them. 

Except for those who have fourth lunch. They know that the food they receive was cooked before lunch even started and has just been heating up since then. Sometimes, there will be little to none of everyone’s favorite dishes left. 

Freshman Ellison Whitlow has had fourth lunch both semesters this year. 

“There is less food and its not as fresh as first lunch,” Whitlow said. “ It’s just not enjoyable.”

However, there is more that goes into calculating the amount of food to be made every day.

“We have to take into account the waste at the end of each day,” high school kitchen manager, Shelia Heinze said. “We only order and make what we have to, to keep the cost of food down so the prices the students have to pay stays down.”

Students are always disappointed to find that the option they were looking forward to is no longer available.

“Those ala cart chicken nuggets, they never have any [by fourth lunch],” junior Justin Sage said. “I want chicken nuggets; I didn’t get any, it kinda makes me sad.”

The amount of food provided for lunch each day is determined by Heinze.

“My cook and I decide how much we should make,” Heinze said. “We will make sure we have ‘x’ amount of servings for each lunch. There is no way for us to predetermine what the students are going to take.”

Some students have ideas for how the food can be spread out.

“Add another five or 10 minutes for the lunch ladies to replace the food and just clean up the whole area,” Whitlow said. “I think it would just improve the quality for everything and everyone.”

Others think that it would be easier to have certain food saved for the later lunch.

“They could put out the food at different times so it’s not all out at one time, so it doesn’t run out really fast,” freshman Lola Tushhoff said.