By Mackenzie Bernas

Sophomore Shreya Patel enjoys the additional time from one lunch.

“I think it is very nice. I love the extra time,” said Patel.

One lunch is a new policy in VBCPS and it condenses all of the previous lunch blocks into one.

It is a way for students to get homework, make-up work, extra help, and other activities done. It makes a lot of things easier for the students who need to complete tasks that they otherwise wouldn’t have the time to complete during school without one lunch.

“I’m for one lunch because you can get your work done and you can hang out with your friends,” said junior Ashley Keeter.

Teachers also have their own opinions on one lunch and how students are using the time.

“I love it,” said French teacher Elisabet Crothers. “I love the fact that we have time to eat without being rushed. I come from a culture where lunch is the most important meal of the day so being able to have more than 20 minutes to eat for me is very very nice.”

Additionally, Crothers believes that students are optimizing their time.

“I see more and more students reaching out to teachers or taking [the] opportunity of meeting with clubs,” said Crothers.

Marketing and economics teacher Linda Bright also thinks that one lunch will be beneficial to students.

“I am kind of excited about it,” she said. “It’s too early in the year, but I’m hoping it’s going to end up really facilitating students in getting missed work or helping them to improve their work or their grades. I keep telling my students to use it, and they seem receptive.”

One lunch offers many benefits to students, but it comes with flaws according to students.

“I think there’s not enough time because it’s almost like the exact same amount of time you have with regular lunch…because they take that five minutes off and they expect you to get work done,” said junior Nina Brown.

Some of the drawbacks to one lunch come with the newness of it and gaining more experience with it can help like experimenting with it last year can help fix some of the minor flaws. “Now they know it’s doable,” said Bright about the experience of last year with one lunch. “It’s going to be slow just like anything else, picking up, you know, charging Chromebooks, slow, but they’re going to get it eventually.”