HC cafeteria faces overcrowding issue

HC’s cafeteria is always filled with students. Every student goes to the cafeteria, because of this, there is a lack of adequate seating. Multiple students are left sitting on the floor in the large connector or with no place to sit.  

“My concern is having adequate seating for everybody,” HC Administrator Laura Donovan said. “Particularly when we get bad weather.” 

There are over 2,000 students at HC. Approximately 740 students are in first and third lunch and 540 students are in second lunch. Second lunch has traditionally been the lightest out of all three lunches. However, teachers do not want to have second lunch during their class period because it can distract their students.  

“For whatever reason, second lunch has always had fewer people,” Donovan said. “A lot of people say they don’t want second lunch because they have a harder time managing their students. [It can be challenging] if they have to stop class and go to lunch, then regain attention. My goal was to minimize that impact on the greatest number of students and teachers.” 

Tables are packed with students, leaving the benches left to be used. Depending on the bench size, between four and six students can occupy the bench at once.  

“[Third lunch] is very overcrowded,” Junior Lily Breeze said. “There are so many people that have to sit on benches. We need either more chairs or less students.” 

One thing that may be contributing is students are not permitted to go eat outside under the “Flying V” in front of the school. This makes the lunchroom feel even more cramped than it already is.  

“Metal detectors are coming on September 16 and 17,” Donovan said. “[HC Administrators] thought that we are not going to allow students to go out and come back in once we have the metal detectors. So, we thought that we should start off the year with the expectation that nobody goes outside.” 

If the lunch schedule continues to be a problem, the lunch schedule could potentially change.