Students will no longer be able to buy outside food during their lunch periods, according to assistant principal Mark Rigby.
The administration plans to be lenient with its enforcement this week as it continues to spread the news; however, as of Monday, Oct. 20 any vendors that arrive at Niles West with food that is ordered by students will be sent away, Rigby said.
“It’s always been a policy, it’s just that now it’s getting out of hand,” he said. “The number of people that buy outside food is over board, it’s becoming an issue with phones being used during homeroom and it’s just a wreck at front desk. If you really want to go eat, just do all right in school and get off campus [privileges].”
Last Friday, sophomore Taylor Isirov and other students started a petition to override the rule, which has already received 450 signatures.
“More than half the school loves to order food from outside of West,” she said. “And everyone is against this new rule. I think people won’t listen and they won’t be buying Organic Life [food]. Everyone I asked to sign the petition,jumped to me and grabbed the pen as soon as they heard what it was for.”
This is the second time students have rallied together to show how unhappy they are with the district’s food service provider, Organic Life. In February 2013, students started what they called a “lunch strike” to boycott the cafeteria food.
Senior Trisha Thomas said she was surprised by the announcement.
“My friends and I bought Jimmy Johns on [last] Tuesday so I’m really surprised about the new rule,” she said. “I think as seniors we deserve the privilege to choose where we want to buy our food from and it’s not fair that they’re taking it away.”
Senior William Sargool said students should be able to order food.
“We should be able to eat whatever we want, like what if we don’t want Organic Life. It should be our choice to spend our money on what we want,” he said.
Mario Ljubic contributed to this article.
Master P • Oct 20, 2014 at 7:11 PM
Great story about student life at Niles West.
J • Oct 17, 2014 at 9:40 AM
Organic life food is disgusting ans overpriced for NO reason. Nothing is worth my money in the cafe. It is not like we get our delivered food during any period, it’s only during lunch so whats the big deal? I’m sure all of 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th period doesn’t order all at once. This ban is unnecessary. In the front, the guards just have to check our ID THAT’S IT. I am so glad I am graduating this year because to be honest the policies are getting worst and are useless.
Alum • Oct 18, 2014 at 6:00 PM
What’s stopping you from bringing in a sandwich in a brown bag? You seem to be under the impression the only options in life are eating cafeteria food, or having food delivered to you by a restaurant.
There are an awful lot of other choices.
Corey • Oct 16, 2014 at 4:06 PM
To be honest, the school couldn’t STAND losing any more money because their nasty old food wasn’t selling any more. The menu has been relatively the same for years, and people are getting tired of it. If the school is going to ban vendors, at least change the same old food.
Alum • Oct 18, 2014 at 3:50 PM
Yes, because it is a giant conspiracy to prop up cafeteria sales. Or, because the high school is not a for profit business, this would make no sense.
It’s probably more because it is very disruptive. Allowing students to order food and have it delivered is completely ridiculous. It was not allowed when I was a student so I have no idea when this would have started.
If every student did this, it would be completely impossible to scale. It would completely overwhelm staff whose job is not to deal with this. Think about how many people work at the front desk of a hotel who deal with fewer people than this.
Not to mention it probably causes some students to be late to class as they become more focused on their take out order than anything else, results in unnecessary phone calls, results in unnecessary traffic and managing delivery drivers who randomly show up as visitors. It becomes a problem when students probably don’t pay the driver who then expects the school to do something about it when it isn’t the school’s job.
I’m sure there are pizza boxes and wrappers and all kinds of other junk left laying around too.
This whole thing is so completely ridiculous on so many levels that you don’t think it is strange that you can have food delivered to you while you are in school. This is like something out of Ferris Buhler that never actually happens, but somehow you believe it is not only normal, but your right.
Tim • Oct 13, 2014 at 9:56 PM
Way to hinder local food vendors just so the front desk security can do EVEN LESS WORK. I never knew one person with off campus privileges, so there goes that too.
Alum • Oct 14, 2014 at 8:28 AM
It isn’t their job to manage your fast food deliveries. Someone has to sit at the front desk. That is their job. Do you think it should be up to you to decide what these people do instead of their supervisor?
Mike P. • Oct 13, 2014 at 9:34 PM
I love pizza. I order it to school on a day-to-day basis. I’m not going to spend $2.50 on deca ice cream that increases its price every year. I am not going to spend $1.25 on a bag of chips. I am for sure not going to spend $5 on that pizza that looks like its been there for like a week in the freezer. If you heard of Rosati’s Pizza, they give you an awesome deal for only $3. But as I was saying, the school needs to put back some better food choices. I like ordering pizza because I can split it with my friends at $4 for half a box of pizza at Dominos. Thats 10x better quality and quantity. Like NW has to re-do there “healthy” choices because I would rather eat nothing then Organic Stupid Life.
Alum • Oct 14, 2014 at 8:26 AM
you eat pizza every day? seriously? if you keep that up you’re going to weigh 300 lbs or die
i think if you look at high schools across the country, it is going to be pretty universally ridiculous to think it is reasonable for a high school student to have pizza delivered to school on a daily basis.
Mike • Oct 14, 2014 at 12:46 PM
Don’t tell me what I do with my money, I’m a rich man who lives off of pizza and to prove my wealth I have a 2014 dodge viper SRT with a Bugatti W16 engine swap that I use on a weekly basis, my daily is a Honda Del Sol but that’s OK. Pizza 4 life. Scratch that, Lou malnatis 4 life
Alum • Oct 13, 2014 at 9:06 PM
To be honest, this just seems like a pointless ban. A mess at the front desk? Honestly how many people ACTUALLY order food per lunch period. And it’s not that big of a deal if the students pay online for the food. It shouldn’t be very disruptive because all students have to do is pay the delivery person and move on. I remember ordering food back in high school and the transaction would take about 1 minute. The justifications the school admin are giving aren’t very credible. Yes, students use cell phones during homeroom all the time. Homeroom is only 10 minutes and it’s not usually very productive anyways, and if students use their phones (every single student does) then why not. It’s not that big of a deal. Besides, students are allowed to have phones during passing periods, and it does only take 5 minutes to order food. So it’s not something to make a big deal out of and take these privileges away. Let the students order food from outside if they want to; I don’t see it hurting anyone in any major way and I disagree that it is a way for students to show off their money. Cafetaria food isn’t all that cheap either, and students will probably order a sandwich for just a few more dollars and actually be satisfied with their food. The admin is just blowing things out of proportion and trying to exercise control over things that don’t even need much maintenance. The school needs to focus on areas that ACTUALLY need help and stop bothering themselves and the students with stupid rules like this. Seriously Niles West.
Rafal • Oct 13, 2014 at 8:53 PM
I think that the rule is so stupid. And since he mentioned the off campus privilage which is a privilage for juniors and seniors only, can you guys write an article about senior privilages in our school ? Because we don’t have any. Being a senior this year sucks, we don’t even get to finish school early.
Alum • Oct 13, 2014 at 6:52 PM
Schools getting worst year by year smh..
Alum • Oct 13, 2014 at 12:15 PM
I graduated from niles west a pretty long time ago, and this was never something people did back then. I’m curious when it started, since this sort of thing would never have been allowed.
I can see it being incredibly disruptive. I also kind of see it as a typical high school fad. We had things similar to this back in my day as well. It lets certain students show they have a little more power in the high school social structure than others. It sounds like it reminds me of when kids would go get starbucks on the way to school. For many, it was a way subtle way to show they drove to school versus taking the bus. Similar to people who would walk around with car keys in their hands.
Ordering food is a way to show who has a cell phone, who has money, etc. It’s a subtle way for those who have to put those who don’t in their place.
As a side thing, it’s a crazy waste of money. You can make 5 turkey sandwiches from ingredients you buy at Jewel for almost the cost of one Jimmy Johns order.
The amount of effort you have to expend to get Jimmy John’s delivered to a high school as opposed to taking a sandwich out of your backpack or buying something from the cafeteria is pretty significant.
Bring a sandwich from home. There’s no conspiracy with the food in the cafeteria. A typical corporate or university environment also has awful food available for too high prices in their cafeteria.