Students at Tupelo High School face a daily race against the clock. The 20-minute lunch period leaves little room for more than a hurried meal, let alone time for relaxation or conversation. For those walking from distant buildings, the brief break is further shortened by the travel time.

Estrella Candanedo, a junior, expressed her frustration with the time constraints.“Well I mean that’s a good amount of time but having to walk all the way there takes like 5 minutes. Getting your lunch and the lines are a little long.” she said.

The debate over lunch duration is complex, with opinions varying depending on students’ schedules. Luis Ortega,a freshman, who has a later lunch, sees no need for change, stating, “If I had more time, I’d just be bored.” However, he acknowledges that an earlier lunch period might have him longing for a longer break.

Having longer lunch breaks could encourage students to make bad decisions feeling that they’ll get away with it. This may cause disciplinary actions to become more extreme. 

So I think the challenges comes with all the downtime after people eat, with people maybe wanting to go roam around campus, maybe skip, maybe start hooking and stuff like that. So you’d have to have more people on duty, and that kind of stuff.”Coach Smith said. 

Would there be any academic advantages to having longer lunches? Have you read any reports that support or deny longer lunches benefit students? 

Extending lunch results into longer class periods. Class would have to be cut into so the possibility of longer lunches can come true. 

“That depends if the students want to stay longer at the end of the day. Because the state mandates you have to be in school for this many hours a year, you know to count toward a day. So if we take more lunch time, we’ll have to have the same amount of class time.” Coach Smith said.

The bell signaling the end of lunch at Tupelo High School also rings in a question: could more time to eat and socialize lead to better student well-being and performance? As the school community debates the pros and cons of extending lunch periods, one thing is certain—the hunger for change is about more than just food.