Serving as a break from their studies, School Districts across BC give students an allotted time-slot to eat lunch and then some form of physical activity.

For SD57’s Parent Advisory Council (PAC), they would like to see students given more than just 15 minutes to consume their lunch after receiving complaints of food being wasted.

PAC Chair Gillian Burnett finds the break misleading to call it “Lunch Hour.”

“It has been reduced to 15 minutes, which I consider a race to wash your hands, collect your lunch, consume it as quick as possible, and clean up to get outside. What we’re finding, is a lot of kids are not eating their lunch; they just think ‘we don’t have enough time.'”

Burnett says parents would like to see longer lunch times enforced and adds there’s a concern regarding the older students supervising the younger students.

“Some parents are concerned because the intermediate students are not eating their lunch either, because they feel like they’ve got this responsibility to be vigilant. We can’t confirm that they’ve received any sort of training as to what to do if there is an emergency situation.”

She claims a decade ago, lunch hours were actually an hour long and if implemented again, children would be given the chance to eat healthier.

Burnett also suggests that SD57 should mimic other BC schools and their lunch break systems.

“I know at least one school that does physical activity outside first, and that way if kids haven’t finished, they can continue eating while a lesson begins. There is a few schools that do give 45 minutes of outside time, then eating is done during instructional time.”

Burnett presented these ideas and concerns to the SD57 Board of Education at the public meeting Tuesday night.