Commentary: But What If We Get Hungry?

Have you ever been so hungry that you couldn’t focus?

Maybe your stomach was rumbling so loud that everyone could hear it. The only way to rectify this problem, you ask? To eat something.

This happens to me just like many other students. I only have so much time during the stressful night that school brings. And like many other students, I buy lunch at school, and with our non-existent snack time, that is the only time that I eat between the hours of 8:30 am and 3:02 pm.

When I first started at the high school as a freshman I would frequently notice the vending machines that lay right outside the cafeteria filled with snacks. I would often frequent this sacred place whenever I needed a little extra energy throughout the day. This could be almost anything from pop tarts, to granola, and everything in between. And, yeah, maybe not the healthiest of choices to have a pop tart at 9:15 in the morning. But when you know you’re not going to have another chance to eat until 12:30 because you have a third lunch, you really learn to take what you can get and move on with your day.

Most people will come in with the argument “What is the point in having vending machines if all the students would be eating junk food?” or the infamous “They can just bring a snack from their house can’t they?” But having something when you are hungry is better than having nothing at all.  And who is to say if we were to bring the vending machines back, we couldn’t explore having healthier options or even healthy alternatives to food that was in there before they closed down.?

Having something to eat when hungry can actually help you in class which many don’t even consider. When you’re so hungry that typically is where most of your attention shifts to. Having the opportunity to eat something could make it so students aren’t thinking about how hungry they are anymore and they are thinking about the lesson that they are being taught. When I’m hungry, the very last thing that I want to do is think about how long I have to wait till I can eat. Bringing back the vending machine would bring the opportunity back to students to eat whenever they want to or need to. 

And it would also bring a little extra money to the school simultaneously. It’s a win-win.