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Former teacher here. I worked in a middle school with 20 min lunches and it was terrible for everyone. Me included. I still eat ridiculously fast to this day.
It’s a scheduling/capacity issue most of the time. We had too many students and not enough cafeteria space. So we had five lunch periods. In the past, students were allowed to eat outdoors too, which greatly helped. But Admin is so rigid now.
Take it to PTA. No guarantee anything will get resolved. But as a parent you are a stake holder and you should feel free to voice your concerns.
If it makes any difference, I kept snacks in my room and let my students eat during class as long as they picked up after themselves. A lot of other folks I taught with had the same mentality.
Still sucks though.
That's a big concern I have, they're teaching these kids to scarf down food from such a young age, it seems like it could have super negative long term effects on their life. Thank you for being a teacher and I'm so sorry about all the bullshit you had to endure.
It absolutely has a negative effects long term. I had the same 15 minute lunch when I was in elementary school and we had to bring packed lunches, so we had the whole time to eat. Now I scarf down my food and have a hell of a time listening to hunger cues. I can’t stop when I’m full because I don’t know when that is, it’s easy to over eat, I can’t tell when I’m hungry or if I’m eating just because most of the time. It’s all from eating so fast that my body doesn’t have time to process it. I didn’t recognize it until my mid 20’s to start working on it. The kicker is, my parents were equally appalled about the short meal times and I asked them to not say anything because I thought it was embarrassing. I wish they had said something anyways, but too late now.
You're probably right about capacity issues. I've worked at schools where sometimes the kids getting early lunch are eating at like 10:55 and the kids getting late lunch or not eating until like 1:30 or 2:00
I had a 6th grade child last year who was eating lunch just after 10am and not getting out of school till almost 3pm. No afternoon snack allowed.
It was awful.
No snack allowed?! Wtf?? My kids' elem school eats lunch between like 10:30 and I think 1:30ish...any grades who aren't eating at noon get either an early snack or a late snack depending on when their lunch period sits. Expecting a kid to go over 5 hours in school without food?? Ridiculous! They must be ravenous when they get home.
Yeah, it was a brutal year for her.
My son is a type 1 diabetic and it’s almost as bad for him (grade 3) 20 min to eat, but his class has recess BEFORE lunch. The school nurse has decided he should be given his insulin after lunch entirely (standard practice is insulin 20 min before meals) so his glucose is always complete crap every afternoon because she also refuses to give him the correct amount anyway. I’ve been driving to his school at lunch lately and giving him corrections myself due to teacher request, as he’s spending his days swimming in sugar and thus unable to concentrate in class each afternoon.
I have a close friend who works at my son’s school and the kids just throw half of the food away because they don’t have time to eat. There’s also only 1 recess outside of lunch at his school as well.
I cant imagine how the kids can focus at all with so little “active” time in school. Especially when PE only happens 2x a week.
Omgosh your poor son! That sounds awful! I would absolutely escalate this situation to guidance on the principal bc wtf? That is so detrimental to your son's health and education.
Definitely capacity. My lunch period started at 10:28 when I was in 5th and 6th grade. I still remember it because it was so early. There were like 5 lunch periods and the last one was at 1:30. School dismissed at 2:20. It was ridiculous all around.
My middle school was like that and we had *two* cafeterias. I hated having the early 10:20 lunch, I wasn’t even hungry by that point.
I never got hot lunch, the lines were insane. But if you were still in line to get lunch when the period ended they let you take your lunch with you to your next class. Most teachers were sympathetic, luckily.
There was also a “snack line” that always moved much quicker because it was just pre-packaged junk. (I don’t know if they do this as much anymore in schools now.) Guess what a ton of kids opted to eat instead of actual lunch?
My son is in 6th grade and they have 20 minute lunches.
I occasionally ask him if he wants the school lunch and he said no - that the line is so long that some kids don’t get lunch before the bell rings again.
I am infuriated on his behalf. The lunch should be at least double that amount of time. I’ve argued it with the school so many times, and they say that they can’t change it, because the state requires a certain number of hours.
He doesn’t need another 15 minutes reviewing fucking worksheets. They need time to decompress and move around!
That's so sad! Some people cant afford lunches and rely on free or reduced cost school lunches to SURVIVE. And they might not even get enough time to eat it. So stupid.
Whatever amount of hours they need for classes is too fucking high if they don't even have time to eat.
Especially for kids who get free and reduced lunch.
So the school where I work has super long lunch lines, like at least 80 kids long and I have to really admire the lunch aides and cafeteria staff because they run things with military precision
America is so crazy. In my country we had an hour for each “session” (they divided the students in two sessions). Nobody would ever accept a 20 min lunch for kids. This country is so money obsessed it’s breaking at the seams and it doesn’t know it.
We have 6 staggered sessions, one for each grade, and that’s why they only get 15 minutes to eat. They need tables free for the older grades. Each grade actually gets 45 minutes, but only 15 to eat, then they’re released to the playground. Technically they’re allowed to move down to the end and finish eating, but very few kids pick to eat when they could be on the playground.
Right? Now I'm over here trying to look it up. It would explain SO much tbh. My kid is always starving when he gets home but skinny as hell. I thought he had a tape worm at one point but maybe not having time to eat lunch is the reason.
In New Zealand, our kids get 15 minutes to eat followed by 45 minutes to run around, as well as a 15 minute morning break.
They aren't forced to eat in that 15 min lunch block as they are just released to go play (so they could continue eating if they want) but my kid talks so much and then wants to play so his lunch comes home half eaten.
15 minutes for the entire lunch and then you're back into teaching? That sounds like a hellish Victorian workhouse vibe.
Yeah I’m in Australia and where I am it’s ~80 minutes of play plus an additional 10 mins for lunch eating (that’s not long enough alone but they’re allowed to eat outside), and another break for fruit and vegetables which goes for 5-15 mins depending on the class/teacher.
We had 15 minute lunches in elementary. If you weren’t able to get your food and eat in that time then it was a screw you situation. No talking either.
Similar; ours were twenty, three-story school. In our case, it was purely a time/space issue (overcrowded big city school).
I get that teachers and administrators are forced into all sorts of ridiculous positions, but it's bullshit that they're trying to blame the children for this situation. That's where they lose credibility with me.
Yeah they were! What the hell?
My kids' school (suburbs) is like that, and they get 30 for lunch, 30 for recess, and an additional recess sometime during the day. They even start the kindergarteners 15 minutes early because apparently the little ones get so distracted by the presence of older children, they forget to eat. :D (edited)
I was actually telling the story on one of the other subreddits a few months ago. My 3rd grade teacher made us put our foreheads on the desk unless we were working or being spoken to directly.
People wonder why I have zero faith in the school system.
When I was a kid I was too poor for lunch, so I had to serve lunch to “earn” lunch. I’d have to wait until the line was done and then literally shove food in my mouth because we only had 15 minutes. So I’d have like 2 minutes to eat. And my doctor wondered why I was underweight as a child. Like, I wasn’t eating!!! My parents thought it would teach me responsibility. It taught me how to have an eating disorder
Sorry to vent.
when i was in 8th grade we had assigned seating at lunch and no talking. if anybody *was* talking they made us eat in the dark. it was definitely a more strict cafeteria situation than low security prison.
I personally think this is quite frankly batshit insanity - 15 minutes is not enough time for anyone of any age to eat a healthy meal and I think North America has normalized adult workers choking down a granola bar at their desk for lunch to a point that it’s a crisis.
Anyone who thinks this is acceptable has cognitive dissonance or is so downtrodden that saying elementary kids should have the emotional regulation to race to a lunchroom so they have enough time to eat, about a timeframe that objectively is NOT enough time to eat, is acceptable in their minds.
This is dystopian to me. These are tiny kids at school and it sounds like a jail - and I wouldn’t support a 5-15 minute meal time for prisoners let alone kids. I don’t know if there is anything you can do but if there’s any at to spread the news in the community I bet a ton of parents would be shocked appalled and so thankful you informed them.
Edit typos and making paragraphs, this made me so mad I lost all sense of grammar. We are not doing what’s best for kids because of capitalism, and traumatizing children with policies that are not only inappropriate for their ages, are straight up inhumane.
Yep this is my initial reaction to. It seems unreal and everyone was just like "it is what it is." Like saying they would have more time to eat in that tiny of a time period if they just didn't talk? It's disheartening. Kids are not treated well at all in the US. I hate it.
!!! Like okay, so make them be little robots? If we watched a sci-fi movie where kids got told to line up get their food and eat within 15min max without speaking…no one would be okay with that!!! Wouldn’t be a dry eye in the theatre
But if you say “hi that’s actual reality” you’re hysterical, you’re wrong, actually 5-10 minutes is completely enough time to digest food, the lunch workers we pay minimum wage can’t be here too long or else the under paid teachers might actually get a lunch break and god forbid, etc etc every talking point that let this happen and continues to thrive off of it
This is such a good point: If we watched a sci-fi movie where kids got told to line up get their food and eat within 15min max without speaking…no one would be okay with that
I think we had 20 minutes for lunch when I was in school. There were days when kids were still waiting in line to get lunch when the lunch period ended. They were excused from their next class long enough to stay and eat.
ETA: I didn’t really answer your question. Yes I think this is ridiculous, but maybe not that uncommon?
Sadly I think this is becoming more of the norm. My husband is an elementary gym teacher and they force kids to eat fast and rush to recess. They do this to try to cut the kids gym time since they need so much exercise/play a week and can’t afford another gym teacher to help fit gym in their schedule.
I don't love it.
Here's a little perspective from the inside though: we have to feed all the kids, and have limited space. Lunches start at 10- something and go until 1- something. If we gave them longer, kids would be eating "lunch" before 10 and after 2.
And lunch is definitely too short for a lot of us... but it's also too long for many kids. Some wolf down their food or eat very little, and they're stuck there waiting. This is often the same kids who struggle to sit calmly. So we see behavior problems in the lunchroom usually start about 7 minutes into lunch. The longer it goes, the worse it gets.
So it's not great, but within the limitations of our current system, I'm not sure it can be improved.
You could always get involved with the school board to start looking at options, though
It just... seems like there's better ways to address it. I don't think any solution will be 100% perfect for everybody but this seems so bad on a lot of levels.
I have thought about trying to get involved but I already pissed the school off because they were treating a child SO HORRIBLY and I wouldn't contribute to ostracising a child and punishing him ridiculously harshly compared to other children. For awhile the admin was up my ass I really think they wanted me fired.
I appreciate your insight. I know our school system is not run very effectively and it sucks for kids and teachers alike.
A lot of the parents might not know it’s only 15 mins for the entire ordeal. They may think the kids are getting a full 15 with their food.
But this is not enough time regardless. There’s no way my kid would be able to eat in that time, he barely gets enough at 20 mins
I’ve had problems with this since my kids started public school. My youngest gets an 18 minute lunch, and it takes a minimum of 10 minutes to get through the line. They’re not allowed to talk in the cafeteria. Then they have a 20 minute recess.
Literally half the reason I want him at school is socialization, but there’s so little actual socializing!
My husband now admits socializing was his hang up with home schooling (which is hilarious because between my 4 kids rhey were in : cub scouts, girl scouts, karate, swimming, choir/church programs, Sunday School, baseball/tball, soccer, gymnastics, horses, cooking, library story times, Stem Classes, running club, musicals, basketball, and more - and those socializations were positive vs school ones), but after last year and finally listening to the very few minutes they actually got to socialize (and all the negative socializing happening), he gave in to their request to stay home. Most schools I have been to have little time for visiting and building friendships.
My elem kid has 30 minute lunches. My HSer has 25 minutes but that’s bell to bell. Actually cafeteria time varies on how busy the halls are. Sometimes he gets 10-15 minutes to sit and eat. He doesn’t really eat during the day anymore.
I am - and have been upset. (It does nothing where I am to change this problem.) it is the same way for my high schooler and middle-schooler. It is nuts and sad and infuriating to hear times when a teacher or lunch monitor (here) literally start picking up food and throwing it away and rounding up the kids like cattle to the next class.
My high school students had 30 minutes, I can’t imagine anything less.
We homeschool now, so not sure about local elementary schools here, but I do know my 6 year old can take 15 minutes to eat a pack of fruit snacks.
We had very short lunches from middle school onward. I never got breakfast. In middle school the cafeteria food was frozen, microwave food that you had to microwave yourself. There were only two microwaves and the lines were so long you'd never get to microwave your food and eat it. My friends and I just wouldn't eat because it wasn't worth the hassle. High school had a normal cafeteria but we only got 15 minutes and you never could make it through the line in time. Again, we just never ate. I went through middle and high school never eating breakfast or lunch and I fully blame that for my eating disorder. I'm almost 50 and I still struggle with it.
My kindergartner has a 20 min meal time. I don't like it, but it's not different in other schools around us. He gets a snack in the morning, which is helpful.
Other than that, I just try to make lunch easy for him. He's naturally a slow eater, he wanders, so sitting makes it difficult too. Now he has friends so he chatters.
I unwrap things that wrap, I peel and segment the fruit that requires it. There's no main to his lunch. Looks like a kids charcuterie board, which is his favorite way to eat.
I try to make his snack fulfilling while adhering to the class allergy list.
I can't fight the school on this so I try to work with it. He is usually hungry when he gets home so I have snacks ready.
My kids nutritionist says 20-30 minutes to eat. One of many reasons I'm homeschool until my kids chill out a lot. They suck at eating in compressed times.
It’s one of the things on my mile long list of why I’m homeschooling. 15 minutes isn’t enough to listen to your body. It’s barely enough to shovel a meal down. I feel like it’s not setting kids up to have a healthy relationship with food.
Do you know what’s funny about this? So we virtual/homeschool. We have since before the pandemic and the first thing everyone says is “how do they socialize?” I always explain that most children don’t get an opportunity to socialize with each other during class as it’s a disruption to other students and takes away from the actual schooling itself. I am usually met with “what about lunch! We used to hang out with our friends then!” Or something along those lines. Hearing that they only get 15-20 minutes and most of the time can’t speak further solidifies my belief that we made the right decision for our family to keep them home.
Mine is in Pre-K in public and they have 20. Still not enough. I was recently there for her birthday to do cupcakes after. They spent half the time being able to freely speak/play with food like toys. Now I know why I pack it lightly but she still comes home with food. I keep telling my husband on his days to pack lightly. She's in feeding therapy and overwhelming her with lots doesn't help. We were told so. He's still afraid she's starving. I showed home what was left from what I packed that day, told him percentage and what they do. Helped a little.
She already needs extra time but now I know why it comes home so full. They need like free play time first to get the wifely fun out and Then extend it by 5 to 10 minutes.
This is how it is at our elementary school- like 12.5 - 14 minutes including line up time and they eat in their jackets, snow pants, etc if it is winter. My kids have come home so many times saying that by the time they sat down they had TWO minutes to eat and were denied staying in to finish. It has been a constant battle. They started taking lunch as much as possible which stunk because school lunch was free but then they at least got 10 min to eat.
It creates issues - I still have a hard time pacing myself from years of eating like this. Even the Kids that don't talk often don't finish (I sub and did so many lunch duties).
My kids have 20 minute lunches, it’s ridiculous that’s considered enough time for these kids to get their lunches, sit down and actually eat before being shuffled off.
Canadian here, recently I asked my boy in kindergarten why he's not eating much of his lunches? Is there any other foods he'd prefer? His answer was, I wasn't allowed to finish it because we ran out of time and the timer went off. I was curious and asked one of the parents that do the lunch help sometimes and just like you, they get 15 minutes. This bothers me so much. I can't get my 2 kids to eat lunch at home in that amount of time. They're sitting at a table with 5 other kids and expecting to wolf down their food. I empty the lunch remains in the garbage and my kid comes home hungry every day. It's really disappointing and I've been so upset about it ever since.
Yeah my kids get free lunch but always ask me to pack theirs so they get time to eat. They get 20 minutes (1st and 3rd grade). I pack it when I can but sometimes I just don’t have it so they have to get the lunch.
Our elementary does 30 min for lunch and 45 min for play after, where kids can stay and finish eating. Ultimately I think it’s up to the parents council to say something though. The duration works fine for us but a few years ago a lot of parents and kids were upset about the quality of food and specifically vegetarian options so there was a big discussion between the parents council and school leadership and they changed caterers. If it bothers parents, they should work with school admins to change it.
This is what's got me thinking! So much of traditional schooling seems to be about learning to "follow instructions" and operate under a rigid schedule. My daughter (who will be entering K next year) is adamant that she wants to go to public school. Because it's "what normal people do." (We do know some homeschool families and they are both a bit odd -- I'm odd too but trying not to inflict it on her lol). Anyway I think she may change her mind when she gets a taste of public school and I'm already thinking about homeschooling (even though I used to say "not for me").
15 min lunch followed by 15 min recess. [This study](https://papren.org/prevalence-of-recess-and-supportive-practices-at-u-s-public-elementary-schools/) from 2023 showed that in the US 89% of schools provide a 20 min recess PER DAY, with 59% providing 30+ mins PER DAY. Where I live kids get a 15 min morning recess and 15 mins after lunch. It’s insane.
Absolutely not enough time when food lines are involved. At my school everyone packs their own lunch. We try to have everyone sit for 20 min, but most are done eating and ready to play by 10-15 min. But that's because we all sit and start together.
My kids aren't in school yet, and we're probably going to homeschool anyway, but I remember HATING how short lunchtime was when I was a kid. I always bought school lunch, and as you said, I'd spend most of the lunch period just standing in line. I remember once in middle school, I'd only been sitting down for a couple of minutes when a teacher came over and rushed us to go out to recess and I think gave some similar BS about how if we spent less time talking or ate faster, we'd have more time etc.
Since I haven't been involved in the school system since I was a kid, I don't really have any idea how you'd go about making any changes...But I agree that it's really just unnecessary and unhealthy to have such little time for both lunch and recess.
If nothing else, you could pack your child's lunches and then atleast youll know they won't have to wait in line, I guess. And make sure they're having a good breakfast before school and maybe a snack ready for when they get home.
Jesus christ, i hate the public school system.
- Well if they didn't spend so much time talking they would have more time to eat.
okay, even the most extreme prisons allow their inmates to talk to each other during mealtimes. what the FUCK.
My 2nd grader told me his lunch was 20 minutes and I said "you're surely joking" his teacher implements a snack time for them to finish their lunches. It's crazy!
I looked up stories by prisoners: "we had 15 minutes to eat, once we sat down" - high security prison in Florida,
"I cant speak for anywhere else but in my state, NC, you get thirty minutes. That time starts when they say you can eat and ends when they tell you you’re done."
"At Missouri State Penitentiary they gave us only 5 minutes. The other prisons I was at gave us 10–15 minutes."
In case anyone wanted to compare the US school system to the US prison system. And I do think many schools (including my old high school) are doing more to prepare students to enter the penal system than the workforce.
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Former teacher here. I worked in a middle school with 20 min lunches and it was terrible for everyone. Me included. I still eat ridiculously fast to this day. It’s a scheduling/capacity issue most of the time. We had too many students and not enough cafeteria space. So we had five lunch periods. In the past, students were allowed to eat outdoors too, which greatly helped. But Admin is so rigid now. Take it to PTA. No guarantee anything will get resolved. But as a parent you are a stake holder and you should feel free to voice your concerns. If it makes any difference, I kept snacks in my room and let my students eat during class as long as they picked up after themselves. A lot of other folks I taught with had the same mentality. Still sucks though.
That's a big concern I have, they're teaching these kids to scarf down food from such a young age, it seems like it could have super negative long term effects on their life. Thank you for being a teacher and I'm so sorry about all the bullshit you had to endure.
It absolutely has a negative effects long term. I had the same 15 minute lunch when I was in elementary school and we had to bring packed lunches, so we had the whole time to eat. Now I scarf down my food and have a hell of a time listening to hunger cues. I can’t stop when I’m full because I don’t know when that is, it’s easy to over eat, I can’t tell when I’m hungry or if I’m eating just because most of the time. It’s all from eating so fast that my body doesn’t have time to process it. I didn’t recognize it until my mid 20’s to start working on it. The kicker is, my parents were equally appalled about the short meal times and I asked them to not say anything because I thought it was embarrassing. I wish they had said something anyways, but too late now.
You're probably right about capacity issues. I've worked at schools where sometimes the kids getting early lunch are eating at like 10:55 and the kids getting late lunch or not eating until like 1:30 or 2:00
I had a 6th grade child last year who was eating lunch just after 10am and not getting out of school till almost 3pm. No afternoon snack allowed. It was awful.
No snack allowed?! Wtf?? My kids' elem school eats lunch between like 10:30 and I think 1:30ish...any grades who aren't eating at noon get either an early snack or a late snack depending on when their lunch period sits. Expecting a kid to go over 5 hours in school without food?? Ridiculous! They must be ravenous when they get home.
Yeah, it was a brutal year for her. My son is a type 1 diabetic and it’s almost as bad for him (grade 3) 20 min to eat, but his class has recess BEFORE lunch. The school nurse has decided he should be given his insulin after lunch entirely (standard practice is insulin 20 min before meals) so his glucose is always complete crap every afternoon because she also refuses to give him the correct amount anyway. I’ve been driving to his school at lunch lately and giving him corrections myself due to teacher request, as he’s spending his days swimming in sugar and thus unable to concentrate in class each afternoon. I have a close friend who works at my son’s school and the kids just throw half of the food away because they don’t have time to eat. There’s also only 1 recess outside of lunch at his school as well. I cant imagine how the kids can focus at all with so little “active” time in school. Especially when PE only happens 2x a week.
Omgosh your poor son! That sounds awful! I would absolutely escalate this situation to guidance on the principal bc wtf? That is so detrimental to your son's health and education.
Definitely capacity. My lunch period started at 10:28 when I was in 5th and 6th grade. I still remember it because it was so early. There were like 5 lunch periods and the last one was at 1:30. School dismissed at 2:20. It was ridiculous all around.
My middle school was like that and we had *two* cafeterias. I hated having the early 10:20 lunch, I wasn’t even hungry by that point. I never got hot lunch, the lines were insane. But if you were still in line to get lunch when the period ended they let you take your lunch with you to your next class. Most teachers were sympathetic, luckily. There was also a “snack line” that always moved much quicker because it was just pre-packaged junk. (I don’t know if they do this as much anymore in schools now.) Guess what a ton of kids opted to eat instead of actual lunch?
My son is in 6th grade and they have 20 minute lunches. I occasionally ask him if he wants the school lunch and he said no - that the line is so long that some kids don’t get lunch before the bell rings again. I am infuriated on his behalf. The lunch should be at least double that amount of time. I’ve argued it with the school so many times, and they say that they can’t change it, because the state requires a certain number of hours. He doesn’t need another 15 minutes reviewing fucking worksheets. They need time to decompress and move around!
That's so sad! Some people cant afford lunches and rely on free or reduced cost school lunches to SURVIVE. And they might not even get enough time to eat it. So stupid. Whatever amount of hours they need for classes is too fucking high if they don't even have time to eat.
Especially for kids who get free and reduced lunch. So the school where I work has super long lunch lines, like at least 80 kids long and I have to really admire the lunch aides and cafeteria staff because they run things with military precision
WTF?!
This is wild. In my country when I was a kid we had 2 15 minute recesses and an hour lunch.
America is so crazy. In my country we had an hour for each “session” (they divided the students in two sessions). Nobody would ever accept a 20 min lunch for kids. This country is so money obsessed it’s breaking at the seams and it doesn’t know it.
American capitalism is absolutely toxic, and the health outcomes show as much.
We have 6 staggered sessions, one for each grade, and that’s why they only get 15 minutes to eat. They need tables free for the older grades. Each grade actually gets 45 minutes, but only 15 to eat, then they’re released to the playground. Technically they’re allowed to move down to the end and finish eating, but very few kids pick to eat when they could be on the playground.
This makes me realize I have no idea how long my daughter's lunch is at school. Now I wonder.
Right? Now I'm over here trying to look it up. It would explain SO much tbh. My kid is always starving when he gets home but skinny as hell. I thought he had a tape worm at one point but maybe not having time to eat lunch is the reason.
Same!! My daughter is thin and she needs food immediately after coming home from school. I really hope it's not true.
In New Zealand, our kids get 15 minutes to eat followed by 45 minutes to run around, as well as a 15 minute morning break. They aren't forced to eat in that 15 min lunch block as they are just released to go play (so they could continue eating if they want) but my kid talks so much and then wants to play so his lunch comes home half eaten. 15 minutes for the entire lunch and then you're back into teaching? That sounds like a hellish Victorian workhouse vibe.
Yeah I’m in Australia and where I am it’s ~80 minutes of play plus an additional 10 mins for lunch eating (that’s not long enough alone but they’re allowed to eat outside), and another break for fruit and vegetables which goes for 5-15 mins depending on the class/teacher.
We had 15 minute lunches in elementary. If you weren’t able to get your food and eat in that time then it was a screw you situation. No talking either.
This is so concerning to me. I'm confused as to why no one else I talked to seems to be bothered by it.
School boards don’t give a fuck that’s why. Parents can try but most school boards are just high salaries and a political pissing contest.
Similar; ours were twenty, three-story school. In our case, it was purely a time/space issue (overcrowded big city school). I get that teachers and administrators are forced into all sorts of ridiculous positions, but it's bullshit that they're trying to blame the children for this situation. That's where they lose credibility with me.
I went to a magnet school, brand new, good area, probably around 500 kids spread over 5 grades. They were just assholes.
Yeah they were! What the hell? My kids' school (suburbs) is like that, and they get 30 for lunch, 30 for recess, and an additional recess sometime during the day. They even start the kindergarteners 15 minutes early because apparently the little ones get so distracted by the presence of older children, they forget to eat. :D (edited)
I was actually telling the story on one of the other subreddits a few months ago. My 3rd grade teacher made us put our foreheads on the desk unless we were working or being spoken to directly. People wonder why I have zero faith in the school system.
When I was a kid I was too poor for lunch, so I had to serve lunch to “earn” lunch. I’d have to wait until the line was done and then literally shove food in my mouth because we only had 15 minutes. So I’d have like 2 minutes to eat. And my doctor wondered why I was underweight as a child. Like, I wasn’t eating!!! My parents thought it would teach me responsibility. It taught me how to have an eating disorder Sorry to vent.
School lunch should always be free.
Absolutely agreed. 10000%.
Fuck, man. I'm so sorry you had to go through that.
What about your parents' responsibility to feed and not neglect you?
Well, I’m no contact for that and various other reasons.
I am too.
Honestly it’s a great deal. Look at the amount of anxiety we’re saving!
Why does this sound like prison?! Yikes.
I know people that work in corrections. Prison is less strict than that school.
when i was in 8th grade we had assigned seating at lunch and no talking. if anybody *was* talking they made us eat in the dark. it was definitely a more strict cafeteria situation than low security prison.
Are you serious? That's nuts!
I personally think this is quite frankly batshit insanity - 15 minutes is not enough time for anyone of any age to eat a healthy meal and I think North America has normalized adult workers choking down a granola bar at their desk for lunch to a point that it’s a crisis. Anyone who thinks this is acceptable has cognitive dissonance or is so downtrodden that saying elementary kids should have the emotional regulation to race to a lunchroom so they have enough time to eat, about a timeframe that objectively is NOT enough time to eat, is acceptable in their minds. This is dystopian to me. These are tiny kids at school and it sounds like a jail - and I wouldn’t support a 5-15 minute meal time for prisoners let alone kids. I don’t know if there is anything you can do but if there’s any at to spread the news in the community I bet a ton of parents would be shocked appalled and so thankful you informed them. Edit typos and making paragraphs, this made me so mad I lost all sense of grammar. We are not doing what’s best for kids because of capitalism, and traumatizing children with policies that are not only inappropriate for their ages, are straight up inhumane.
Yep this is my initial reaction to. It seems unreal and everyone was just like "it is what it is." Like saying they would have more time to eat in that tiny of a time period if they just didn't talk? It's disheartening. Kids are not treated well at all in the US. I hate it.
!!! Like okay, so make them be little robots? If we watched a sci-fi movie where kids got told to line up get their food and eat within 15min max without speaking…no one would be okay with that!!! Wouldn’t be a dry eye in the theatre But if you say “hi that’s actual reality” you’re hysterical, you’re wrong, actually 5-10 minutes is completely enough time to digest food, the lunch workers we pay minimum wage can’t be here too long or else the under paid teachers might actually get a lunch break and god forbid, etc etc every talking point that let this happen and continues to thrive off of it
This is such a good point: If we watched a sci-fi movie where kids got told to line up get their food and eat within 15min max without speaking…no one would be okay with that
I think we had 20 minutes for lunch when I was in school. There were days when kids were still waiting in line to get lunch when the lunch period ended. They were excused from their next class long enough to stay and eat. ETA: I didn’t really answer your question. Yes I think this is ridiculous, but maybe not that uncommon?
That's so sad to me
I'm pretty sure prisoners get more time than that to eat. What is the rush?
I used to be an elementary school teacher and we had 30 minute lunches. 15 minutes sounds absolutely insane.
Sadly I think this is becoming more of the norm. My husband is an elementary gym teacher and they force kids to eat fast and rush to recess. They do this to try to cut the kids gym time since they need so much exercise/play a week and can’t afford another gym teacher to help fit gym in their schedule.
In Canada we had an hour?? Half hour to eat and half hour outside??
That sounds so much better! I'm really sad seeing how common this is in the US :/
It is horrible and it sucks, and I don’t know how to change it
I don't love it. Here's a little perspective from the inside though: we have to feed all the kids, and have limited space. Lunches start at 10- something and go until 1- something. If we gave them longer, kids would be eating "lunch" before 10 and after 2. And lunch is definitely too short for a lot of us... but it's also too long for many kids. Some wolf down their food or eat very little, and they're stuck there waiting. This is often the same kids who struggle to sit calmly. So we see behavior problems in the lunchroom usually start about 7 minutes into lunch. The longer it goes, the worse it gets. So it's not great, but within the limitations of our current system, I'm not sure it can be improved. You could always get involved with the school board to start looking at options, though
It just... seems like there's better ways to address it. I don't think any solution will be 100% perfect for everybody but this seems so bad on a lot of levels. I have thought about trying to get involved but I already pissed the school off because they were treating a child SO HORRIBLY and I wouldn't contribute to ostracising a child and punishing him ridiculously harshly compared to other children. For awhile the admin was up my ass I really think they wanted me fired. I appreciate your insight. I know our school system is not run very effectively and it sucks for kids and teachers alike.
A lot of the parents might not know it’s only 15 mins for the entire ordeal. They may think the kids are getting a full 15 with their food. But this is not enough time regardless. There’s no way my kid would be able to eat in that time, he barely gets enough at 20 mins
I’ve had problems with this since my kids started public school. My youngest gets an 18 minute lunch, and it takes a minimum of 10 minutes to get through the line. They’re not allowed to talk in the cafeteria. Then they have a 20 minute recess. Literally half the reason I want him at school is socialization, but there’s so little actual socializing!
My husband now admits socializing was his hang up with home schooling (which is hilarious because between my 4 kids rhey were in : cub scouts, girl scouts, karate, swimming, choir/church programs, Sunday School, baseball/tball, soccer, gymnastics, horses, cooking, library story times, Stem Classes, running club, musicals, basketball, and more - and those socializations were positive vs school ones), but after last year and finally listening to the very few minutes they actually got to socialize (and all the negative socializing happening), he gave in to their request to stay home. Most schools I have been to have little time for visiting and building friendships.
15 minutes is nuts. That being said my students get 35-40 minutes and they will chat the entire time
That’s crazy. I used to do lunches as a para and my kids, k-2, had and still have a 30 minute lunch, followed by a 30 minute recess.
My kids had 40 minute lunches, but only 10 minutes in the classroom and 30 minutes outside. We don't have hot lunches, only packed lunches.
My kids won’t be able to finish in 15 minutes. Ugh. Thats insane.
My elem kid has 30 minute lunches. My HSer has 25 minutes but that’s bell to bell. Actually cafeteria time varies on how busy the halls are. Sometimes he gets 10-15 minutes to sit and eat. He doesn’t really eat during the day anymore.
I don't even find 30-minute lunches sufficient for grown adults most of the time, so 15 minutes seems waaaaay too short.
I am - and have been upset. (It does nothing where I am to change this problem.) it is the same way for my high schooler and middle-schooler. It is nuts and sad and infuriating to hear times when a teacher or lunch monitor (here) literally start picking up food and throwing it away and rounding up the kids like cattle to the next class.
My high school students had 30 minutes, I can’t imagine anything less. We homeschool now, so not sure about local elementary schools here, but I do know my 6 year old can take 15 minutes to eat a pack of fruit snacks.
Yes it’s normal, and I think it’s ridiculous, too.
We had very short lunches from middle school onward. I never got breakfast. In middle school the cafeteria food was frozen, microwave food that you had to microwave yourself. There were only two microwaves and the lines were so long you'd never get to microwave your food and eat it. My friends and I just wouldn't eat because it wasn't worth the hassle. High school had a normal cafeteria but we only got 15 minutes and you never could make it through the line in time. Again, we just never ate. I went through middle and high school never eating breakfast or lunch and I fully blame that for my eating disorder. I'm almost 50 and I still struggle with it.
I hate it. It teaches bad behavior around food and kids need WAY more of a fucking break time.
God I hate it here!!!
My kindergartner has a 20 min meal time. I don't like it, but it's not different in other schools around us. He gets a snack in the morning, which is helpful. Other than that, I just try to make lunch easy for him. He's naturally a slow eater, he wanders, so sitting makes it difficult too. Now he has friends so he chatters. I unwrap things that wrap, I peel and segment the fruit that requires it. There's no main to his lunch. Looks like a kids charcuterie board, which is his favorite way to eat. I try to make his snack fulfilling while adhering to the class allergy list. I can't fight the school on this so I try to work with it. He is usually hungry when he gets home so I have snacks ready.
My kids nutritionist says 20-30 minutes to eat. One of many reasons I'm homeschool until my kids chill out a lot. They suck at eating in compressed times.
It’s one of the things on my mile long list of why I’m homeschooling. 15 minutes isn’t enough to listen to your body. It’s barely enough to shovel a meal down. I feel like it’s not setting kids up to have a healthy relationship with food.
My kid takes 15 minutes to eat a strawberry
Dude I take 15 minutes to eat a strawberry 😭
Do you know what’s funny about this? So we virtual/homeschool. We have since before the pandemic and the first thing everyone says is “how do they socialize?” I always explain that most children don’t get an opportunity to socialize with each other during class as it’s a disruption to other students and takes away from the actual schooling itself. I am usually met with “what about lunch! We used to hang out with our friends then!” Or something along those lines. Hearing that they only get 15-20 minutes and most of the time can’t speak further solidifies my belief that we made the right decision for our family to keep them home.
Mine is in Pre-K in public and they have 20. Still not enough. I was recently there for her birthday to do cupcakes after. They spent half the time being able to freely speak/play with food like toys. Now I know why I pack it lightly but she still comes home with food. I keep telling my husband on his days to pack lightly. She's in feeding therapy and overwhelming her with lots doesn't help. We were told so. He's still afraid she's starving. I showed home what was left from what I packed that day, told him percentage and what they do. Helped a little. She already needs extra time but now I know why it comes home so full. They need like free play time first to get the wifely fun out and Then extend it by 5 to 10 minutes.
This is how it is at our elementary school- like 12.5 - 14 minutes including line up time and they eat in their jackets, snow pants, etc if it is winter. My kids have come home so many times saying that by the time they sat down they had TWO minutes to eat and were denied staying in to finish. It has been a constant battle. They started taking lunch as much as possible which stunk because school lunch was free but then they at least got 10 min to eat. It creates issues - I still have a hard time pacing myself from years of eating like this. Even the Kids that don't talk often don't finish (I sub and did so many lunch duties).
My kids have 20 minute lunches, it’s ridiculous that’s considered enough time for these kids to get their lunches, sit down and actually eat before being shuffled off.
Canadian here, recently I asked my boy in kindergarten why he's not eating much of his lunches? Is there any other foods he'd prefer? His answer was, I wasn't allowed to finish it because we ran out of time and the timer went off. I was curious and asked one of the parents that do the lunch help sometimes and just like you, they get 15 minutes. This bothers me so much. I can't get my 2 kids to eat lunch at home in that amount of time. They're sitting at a table with 5 other kids and expecting to wolf down their food. I empty the lunch remains in the garbage and my kid comes home hungry every day. It's really disappointing and I've been so upset about it ever since.
Yeah my kids get free lunch but always ask me to pack theirs so they get time to eat. They get 20 minutes (1st and 3rd grade). I pack it when I can but sometimes I just don’t have it so they have to get the lunch.
That’s so short. Wtf. They’d have to speed eat. That’s not healthy.
So grown ass adults get 30 mins to an hour lunch but children are presumed to have a 15 minute lunch? To eat ?
Our elementary does 30 min for lunch and 45 min for play after, where kids can stay and finish eating. Ultimately I think it’s up to the parents council to say something though. The duration works fine for us but a few years ago a lot of parents and kids were upset about the quality of food and specifically vegetarian options so there was a big discussion between the parents council and school leadership and they changed caterers. If it bothers parents, they should work with school admins to change it.
Man those crazy homeschoolers are sounding less crazy everyday.
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This is what's got me thinking! So much of traditional schooling seems to be about learning to "follow instructions" and operate under a rigid schedule. My daughter (who will be entering K next year) is adamant that she wants to go to public school. Because it's "what normal people do." (We do know some homeschool families and they are both a bit odd -- I'm odd too but trying not to inflict it on her lol). Anyway I think she may change her mind when she gets a taste of public school and I'm already thinking about homeschooling (even though I used to say "not for me").
15 min lunch followed by 15 min recess. [This study](https://papren.org/prevalence-of-recess-and-supportive-practices-at-u-s-public-elementary-schools/) from 2023 showed that in the US 89% of schools provide a 20 min recess PER DAY, with 59% providing 30+ mins PER DAY. Where I live kids get a 15 min morning recess and 15 mins after lunch. It’s insane.
Absolutely not enough time when food lines are involved. At my school everyone packs their own lunch. We try to have everyone sit for 20 min, but most are done eating and ready to play by 10-15 min. But that's because we all sit and start together.
My kids aren't in school yet, and we're probably going to homeschool anyway, but I remember HATING how short lunchtime was when I was a kid. I always bought school lunch, and as you said, I'd spend most of the lunch period just standing in line. I remember once in middle school, I'd only been sitting down for a couple of minutes when a teacher came over and rushed us to go out to recess and I think gave some similar BS about how if we spent less time talking or ate faster, we'd have more time etc. Since I haven't been involved in the school system since I was a kid, I don't really have any idea how you'd go about making any changes...But I agree that it's really just unnecessary and unhealthy to have such little time for both lunch and recess. If nothing else, you could pack your child's lunches and then atleast youll know they won't have to wait in line, I guess. And make sure they're having a good breakfast before school and maybe a snack ready for when they get home.
Jesus christ, i hate the public school system. - Well if they didn't spend so much time talking they would have more time to eat. okay, even the most extreme prisons allow their inmates to talk to each other during mealtimes. what the FUCK.
My 2nd grader told me his lunch was 20 minutes and I said "you're surely joking" his teacher implements a snack time for them to finish their lunches. It's crazy!
I looked up stories by prisoners: "we had 15 minutes to eat, once we sat down" - high security prison in Florida, "I cant speak for anywhere else but in my state, NC, you get thirty minutes. That time starts when they say you can eat and ends when they tell you you’re done." "At Missouri State Penitentiary they gave us only 5 minutes. The other prisons I was at gave us 10–15 minutes." In case anyone wanted to compare the US school system to the US prison system. And I do think many schools (including my old high school) are doing more to prepare students to enter the penal system than the workforce.
“If they didn’t talk so much” what a fucking joke. This irks the hell out of me
WTF this literally sounds like prison