Dining Al Fresco: Lunch is better in the outdoors

Lunch is a great time to get outside and socialize, but Lakeside recently re-established a pre-covid rule restricting us from eating outside of the cafeteria. The only way a student can be permitted to eat outside is if a parent or guardian contacts the school due to health reasons for the student. While some might accept eating in the cafeteria, we see many problems with it. 

While the cafeteria is often a nice place to eat lunch, being confined to one space can be irritating. For the brief period of time when we were able to eat outdoors, lunch was more enjoyable. We were able to choose where we ate lunch and were able to set our own pace. Given this freedom, we were in control of how our lunches went; we could eat lunch and then seamlessly join an activity of our choosing. Lunch and these activities do not need to be completely separate, as they are now, depriving students of choice and control. Yet the best part of eating lunch outdoors is being outdoors. Getting the freedom to eat outside can be a nice way to spend lunch, especially after spending all day inside a classroom. This way of eating lunch was much better than it is now. 

We suggest that students be given a chance to prove themselves worthy of eating outside the cafeteria. We would have a sort of trial to prove ourselves by getting two to three weeks of eating outside again and seeing how it goes. If littering becomes an excessive issue, the administration would reserve the right to revoke this privilege. We hope that with more attention to this issue, students will clean up after themselves, and we will be able to restore the privilege of eating outside. 

If we are allowed to eat outside, students would be expected to take action to make sure that our campus stays clean. Eating outside provided us with so many amazing things, and though we are not at the height of the pandemic anymore, that doesn’t mean things have to change back. We believe that though outdoor eating was meant to be temporary, it should become permanent. Since being able to eat outside creates a fun and social environment, we think that changes should be made in a way that benefits the entire community.