As the lunch bell rang at 10:14 a.m., students rush out of their classrooms and into lunch. Colorful lunch boxes swing around and the cafeteria goes from dead silent to chaos in seconds. Students that need school lunch rush into the lines as the lunch ladies hurriedly prepare meals for these students. But this also brings us to the question: should you get school lunch and is it good or bad for you?

I’ve eaten school lunch ever since second grade and in my opinion, it’s not as bad as everyone thinks it is. School lunches are beneficial in many ways, especially for low-income students. Many students today cannot afford to bring lunch to school. Hillsborough County public schools allow these students to receive reduced-price or even free lunches. As of the 2021-2022 school year, everyone qualifies for the program. The pandemic has put countless families in major financial issues, as numerous lost their jobs. The USDA not only is letting all students get a free lunch, they even get access to a free breakfast.

Eating lunch is also essential for students to give their best performance in school. Students are offered a variety of healthy and balanced meals.

From personal experience, not eating lunch is the worst feeling. I was so tired and I could not pay attention or remember anything my teachers were saying. And when test time came around, let me just say the score I got was not pretty.

I also feel like I have a need to point out how many of us don’t have time to pack lunches. Most of our parents are probably busy with a jam-packed schedule. If they don’t even have alone time for themselves, how are they going to have any time to stress about what their kid is going to eat for lunch tomorrow? There are only 24 hours a day and it is quite impossible to accomplish EVERYTHING. And with all of our after-school activities, homework and studying to do, most students don’t even have time to sleep.

To sum up, we can all say that there are many upsides to school lunches. Although it is not food from a five-star Michelin restaurant, it is filling and will keep you energized for the rest of the school day. From my perspective, it is worth eating than starving myself for the whole day. We come to school to learn and without food, there is no way we can obtain any knowledge.