13 school year, it is clear that many people are still adjusting to our confusing new schedule. Still, even as we end up in the wrong classes or suffer through 80-minute lectures, there is nothing worse than our 25 minute lunch period.

   On the first day of school, I sat with my friends outside to eat. I had stuck around while my friends bought their lunches, even when the lines wrapped around every table in the cafeteria. By the time we finally sat down to eat, which was not an easy task amidst all of the uncertainty, we had only seven minutes to finish our lunches, leaving students who were still in line no time to eat.

   At least we were lucky enough to eat. There are plenty of horror stories circulating of students who have been forced to trash their uneaten lunches before shuffling off to finish their days hungry. Senior Katie Lass put it best when she said “the amount of time we have to eat is ridiculous and unfair.” Basically, if you decide to buy lunch this year, you are put at a huge disadvantage.

   As if the time restraint was not enough of a problem, when the school cut our lunch periods in half they also decided to double the number of students in each one. As senior Deidre Lightman said, each lunch period is “super crowded,” making our only break of the day much less relaxing.

   Although we all know that the lunches are negatively affecting us students, we are not the only ones being hurt this year. All of the lunch ladies throughout the Cherry Hill district had their hours cut. Not only has their job become endlessly harder, but they also have less time to complete it.

   If the lunch periods are an omen for the rest of this school year, it is going to be a long year. Thankfully, students have the opportunity to eat in a classroom with a teacher. If the cafeteria is just too stressful and crowded for you, try packing your lunch and making arrangements to eat with a teacher. No matter what you choose, it is only twenty-five minutes to suffer through anyway.