Principals snack. They graze. They munch. Sometimes, they pulverize their lunch into a smoothie and carry it around school. Most school leaders just don鈥檛 have the time to sit down to lunch.
In response to a query on one of Education Week鈥檚 social media pages, school leaders said they often spent the school鈥檚 lunch hour with students.
鈥淲e have three student lunch waves of 400 students each and I want to be visible and present in as many of these as possible. I am seldom able to take time for myself. Lunch is sometimes eaten on the drive home!!鈥�
鈥�
鈥淭here is a small window that is usually fairly quiet before I head to lunch duty when I may be able to eat lunch or warm up my lunch. Some days I take advantage of that opportunity. Otherwise, it is usually late in the afternoon when I realize I haven鈥檛 eaten and why I am so grumpy.鈥�
鈥�
鈥淚 try to carve out time to eat lunch in the cafeteria at least 3-4 times a week. This gives me an opportunity to interact with students, engage in what鈥檚 going on in their world, and 鈥榖reak bread鈥� with many of our teachers and other administrators who are supervising students.鈥�
鈥�
Now, many principals are leaning into that strategy, thinking about how the school lunch hour could be used better, especially when there鈥檚 an opportunity to engage students with their school community, or help them catch up academically.
Scott Zgraggen, the assistant principal at Springfield Township High School in Montgomery County, Pa., has run a 鈥渓unch and learn鈥� program over the last three years in his school. During a combined lunch hour for the whole school, all 770 students are either eating together, catching up on a missed quiz, getting homework help, or just hanging out with teachers.
鈥淲hen our kids came back after the pandemic, we realized they鈥檇 lost socialization skills, and the wherewithal for work. That鈥檚 when we blew up our old schedule of separate lunches, and created a new, combined hour for lunch,鈥� he said.
Like Zgraggen, assistant principal Lynn Jennissen at the St. Michael-Albertville Public School in Albertville, Minn., believes that fun school lunches can help students connect with each other, and the school community.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 allow cellphones in our school during the school day. For 33 minutes [during lunch], students are forced to look at each other. They have time to interact without distractions or feeling rushed. It鈥檚 great to see them actually talk!鈥� he said.
Cafes, conversations, and rewards
Jennissen鈥檚 school has tried to capitalize on every part of the lunch experience. When students are standing in line to get their lunch, a line monitor greets every student by name. It鈥檚 an opportunity to check-in with students outside the classroom, Jennissen said.
School leaders have also tried to convert lunchrooms into celebratory spaces.
At the Albertville school, for instance, students who鈥檝e earned character badges for good behavior that week are recognized and rewarded during lunch. They, and seven of their friends, get to sit in a special area nicknamed the 鈥淜nights鈥� Honor Lounge,鈥� that鈥檚 set up with games. The winner鈥檚 name is drawn from a lottery of badge-earners, who then also get to skip ahead in the lunch line.
All of this happens in front of their peers, said Jennissen, because it incentivizes good behavior.
Three years ago, local businesses used to donate gift cards to the winners for a free ice cream or meal. But that practice had to stop, said Jennissen, when the state legislature tightened the screws on school audits.
鈥淲e had to start figuring out the monetary value of these cards. If the school hadn鈥檛 purchased the gift cards, we couldn鈥檛 distribute them anymore. It鈥檚 been a downer for our students,鈥� he said.
Rewards are part of Jeffrey Horstman鈥檚 lunchroom strategy, too, in which students who鈥檝e earned character badges are publicly recognized. Horstman is an assistant principal at the Mililani Middle School in Hawaii, which serves a large population of Asian students. School-level data showed leaders that African American, Micronesian, and white students didn鈥檛 feel connected as to the school as their Asian peers.
Mililani is near several military bases, which gave school leaders an idea.
鈥淲e brought in military bands to host concerts during lunch. Our minority students could see people like themselves, since some of them also belong to military families,鈥� Horstman said.
The concerts engage students, and many kids also line up to get the bands鈥� autographs later. The school leadership is now toying with the idea of bringing in more local organizations to do demonstrations or drills during lunch.
鈥淲e want to get the 599th Transportation Brigade [an Army unit that moves equipment, troops, and supplies across the world], to do push-up challenges,鈥� Horstman said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 another benefit of this program鈥攌ids can feel connected to their local communities, too.鈥�
Controlled chaos
Leveraging lunch, though, is labor-intensive.
Both Horstman and Jennissen said their whole leadership team鈥攗sually, a principal, two assistant principals, and a few paraprofessionals鈥攈ave to man the lunchroom, the amphitheaters, or outside spaces where students eat lunch. The work intensifies if there鈥檚 an activity or prize distribution held in the same hour as lunch.
Zgraggen said he runs a 鈥渢ight ship鈥� during the lunch hour he supervises. Because all 770 students have a lunch break at the same time, a school leader has to supervise each area where students are鈥攖he cafeteria, the gym, and the corridors. To make the common lunch work, the school had to convert the lobby and smaller alcoves so students could sit and work there.
Teachers, too, must organize their lunch hour in specific ways. 鈥淭eachers in the same subject area eat lunch together for the first 30 minutes, and then have office hours for the next 30, where they can help students with their specific academic needs,鈥� said Zgraggen.
At the start, students had to be nudged to show up for extra work during the lunch hour. That鈥檚 where school leaders manning these different spaces come in鈥攖hey send students to their assigned rooms to study, make up missed attendance, or take a missed quiz.
It isn鈥檛 all serious, though鈥攕tudents also use the time to work on group projects with their teachers, like making a film or doing a physics experiment.
It鈥檚 not a perfect system yet, Zgraggen said, because students can leave the building during lunch or not attend their advised study period. While senior students were able to adapt to the lunch and learn instructions quickly, those new to high school had some trouble adjusting to the mixed scheduling.
And the school has made some adjustments to suit student preferences.
鈥淚 recently had to tell a student that he couldn鈥檛 DoorDash his food every day, because delivery people aren鈥檛 vetted by the school,鈥� he said. 鈥淣ow his grandmother drops off his lunch everyday.鈥�
