Many of our school’s busiest students have homeroom lunch—ten minutes per day to eat in the middle of a stacked schedule. However, plenty of logistical obstacles exist that prevent those students from receiving the same benefits of lunch as do students with regular lunch periods.

For example, if students aren’t attending homeroom that day (whether there’s an assembly or no homeroom period), those with homeroom lunch are oftentimes denied the chance to buy food from the cafeteria. That’s a safety issue—some students absolutely need to buy lunch from the school, because they either don’t have the opportunity or the means to make their lunch at home. That’s especially harmful for students whose meal security is primarily fulfilled at school.

This year, the lunch period spots on many of these students’ ID cards this year were blank, meaning they had no lunch period. Students were turned away at the door because of a logistical error. They were unable to buy lunch that day and any subsequent day they couldn’t make time to get their IDs reprinted. It seems like an unnecessary—and potentially careless—mistake. No student should have to sacrifice their only ten-minute break during the day to fix a mistake not made on their behalf.

Not having a chance to buy food can make students distracted, sluggish, and unable to concentrate; needless to say, that has a huge negative effect on academic performance and general health. Punishing our most time-pressed students through logistical blunders is counterproductive to their academic success and wrong from a safety standpoint.

It’s not just a nuisance for these students to miss lunch — it’s also dangerous. According to a study, students who don’t have the opportunity to eat lunch are frequently deficient in vitamins A, D, E, and K, along with many other essential nutrients. Those students are also more likely to lack adequate protein and fiber in their diets while consuming the same amount of sugar and total fats as students who eat lunch. The study also proves that these deficiencies early in life can have significant negative impacts on long-term health.

Niles West can easily address these shortfalls. An important fix would be to automatically register students without a lunch period into homeroom lunch. Concurrently, our school should allow these students a different opportunity to buy lunch if their normal lunch period is not available. Each student, regardless of schedule, should have the opportunity to enjoy school lunch services on a daily basis. These changes are simple and guarantee many students a more productive and enjoyable school day.