From 11:15 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Central students get a chance to go to the courtyard or cafeteria and eat lunch with their friends and peers. But, depending on what lunch a student has, they may have to wait a long time for this break. Fourth lunch goes from 1:00-1:30, but the wait can make kids lose focus. 

Freshman Cecilia Taylor said it is 100% harder to focus when having fourth lunch. “I’m more prone to focusing on the fact that I’m hungry than what I’m actually supposed to be focusing on.” 

Freshman Katie Besancon agreed that it is harder to focus. “I think of lunch as a time to interact with my friends and I get a break for a solid 30 minutes. I think that with having later lunch, you are going to find students that are less focused because of it being so late.” 

Many kids bring snacks to school to help them stay focused on their work other than their stomachs. With block scheduling, many students have different lunch periods on A days and B days.  

Taylor has second lunch on A days and fourth lunch on B days. “On B days, I have to prepare to bring more snacks, since I have less access to food, as you are picking what’s left from that day’s lunch.” 

Sometimes students have to experience their line running out of what they want to eat. Switching lines can cut out more minutes of lunch, giving students less time to eat. Freshman Lucy Puls has encountered this multiple times. 

“I have had to switch lines multiple times. I mean, at first I was like how do you run out of food, but now I’ve just accepted it,” Puls said. 

But not everyone hates fourth lunch. Some people think it’s better to end the block at lunch, than back in class. 

“I like fourth lunch because it is a good way to end the block,” Puls said. 

The 2021-2022 school year, which had a nine period schedule, had the latest lunch lasting from 12:43-1:27. Last year’s lunch not only started 12 minutes before, but was also extended 15 minutes. Some kids took advantage of that time and did that night’s homework, read, drew or talked to friends. Sophomore Adeline Samson said she prefers last year’s lunch schedule more than this year’s. 

“Last year we had a ton of extra time to do homework and talk, but now there is like no time to do anything,” she said. 

Samson said it feels weird to go from having seventh period lunch last year, to first lunch and fourth lunch every other day this year. 

“Since I had lunch seventh period every day, I got used to it and it became normal. But now I’m either having an early lunch or a late lunch and it’s annoying.”