Following Google Alerts for delivery-related stories is a delight, including this week’s tale from The Washington Post about middle and high school students doing an end run around lame school cafeterias by ordering food from third-party delivery services. According to the piece, schools from coast to coast are now clamping down on the practice.
“If they get it delivered to the school, the main office sends it back,” said science teacher Leslie Blaha of the Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Virginia.
The Post story also notes that as the Trump administration overturns healthier school lunch standards put in place during the Obama years, nutritionists are airing concerns about kids having access to restaurant meals that are often less healthy than the standard, institutional fare.
Beyond health concerns, some districts have also had negative reactions to drivers lining up at the front office, deliveries disrupting classes and safety concerns from random, occasionally non-uniformed folks showing up during school hours.
Taking a page from my now-distance school years, I recommend students start gamifying the cafeteria experience to see how many tacos or slabs of meatloaf they can eat in a single sitting—or organize and convince the school board to tear down these walls. Don’t forget, necessity (and boredom) is the mother of invention.
