Finally students have returned to the building and are restarting their school routine, only one problem, the school is grossly lacking access to water and food.

     Free food for everyone, sounds great right? Until you realize that means JUST the free food. No water. No snacks. No other options for people who don’t like the food or may have an allergy. You are given your option, take it or leave it with the only drink options of milk and sometimes juice, both of which contain allergens in their own right.

     A major factor of this “water crisis” is that with no sale of water bottles in the cafeteria, all water fountains are out of use and wrapped in plastic. So the usual last ditch effort for safe filtered water is out the window. 

     While some fountains still have an operational water bottle filler at the back of the fountain, it is only some and you still need to find a bottle or cup of some sort that can only be acquired if you bring it yourself.

     Really the only option is to bring everything you need for the day, which is reasonable, most people do, but what about the days you are rushing out of the house? Are you just out of luck? Do they have to be dehydrated all day? Is there no option? Well no, there is food available, but very little and there is no hope of getting any more than the bare minimum proportions provided, no matter how hungry you are.

     The reason for having less options and contactless food service is sound. Covid. Less options, less confusion, less touching, less time. Go up, get food, sit down in your little plastic corner of the cafeteria and eat. Taking all of the options, including water, sandwiches, chips, pretzels, and more that would usually be provided out.

     But you can still have a contactless food system without taking everything out and striping lunch down to the bare minimum. Options can still be there and handed to us, we can say our school numbers without touching a keypad, we can still have a normal breakfast and lunch with all the options, or at least some of them, to offer students to pick their own food and nutrition or even save some snacks for later.

     Maybe this wouldn’t be such a problem if we were able to get some type of more food but you can’t, you only get the food given to you. This is a problem and it needs to be brought to the Food and Nutrition office for the gross mismanagement of the food and water in the building. You can call them at (410)-588-5282.