The bell rings and you’re rushing off to lunch, trying to be the first in line. You wait…and wait… and then you’re finally there ready to get your food. The cafeteria employee tries to speak to you but you don’t hear her because you are listening to your favorite song on the highest volume. She tries again, but you still can’t hear. Then, finally, you realize and take a headphone out. The rest of the line runs smoothly as you approach the end. You argue with yourself about if your mom put money in your lunch account or not. You type in your lunch pin and wait anxiously. Then you are told that you are charging. You then respond with “I’ll bring in my money tomorrow.” Have you ever thought how many students respond with this?

The cafeteria employees are the ones that prepare lunch and cook it. They also give students everything that they request. They work periods in a row preparing food and coffee for students as well as getting students through the line and then doing it again the next day.

When speaking with the cafeteria employees they made some points that need to be considered. When you do something repeatedly over and over again, there are going to be consequences.

Newcomers might not know this but last year the school had ketchup packets. Now you might be wondering, Where did they go? Well, last year students would abuse the ‘luxury’ of the ketchup packets. Some kids would take ketchup packets for no reason and step on them or squirt them everywhere which left the janitors with a bigger mess to clean up then they already have.

Throughout last year the school stopped providing ketchup to the students because of that incident. Now they use squirt bottles so that no ridiculous messes can be made.

As cited in Forbes, “American consumers waste about one pound of food per day, or 225-290 pounds per year.”  

One way to avoid food waste is to tell the cafeteria employees that you don’t want a specific item. This way the item is available for people who want it.  

Despite last year’s ketchup incident, Pam Eyre, one of the cafeteria employees, said, “…for the most part we are very grateful and they are very nice kids…”