Daily Mix It Up Lunch Yields Big Shares

My small school has no cafeteria. Students bring their own lunches and eat in the classroom with their teachers. When I first learned about this set-up, I had mixed emotions. I didn’t get a break for lunch like most teachers, but on the other hand, my middle school students didn’t have to face the awkwardness and social segregation of a large school cafeteria. 

At first, I didn’t think that I needed to be “on” during lunch, since it is technically a free time for students. However, I was surprised to learn that even in a classroom with fewer students, social segregation and alienation happens. I witnessed the entire class crowd around a table, just to avoid one or two other students who sat by themselves on the other side of the room. At other times I heard students refer to a table as the “cool” one and another as the “loser” table. There were only three tables.  

After a few weeks of witnessing this painful social experiment, I implemented a new classroom rule. Every day at lunch, we would put all the tables together and everyone—including me—would sit around the big table. Students could sit wherever they wanted at the table, but this way, no one was excluded from the group at large.

Initially, there was a lot of grumbling at the new guidelines. Some students experienced a loss of power or independence. But gradually, the complaining stopped. Students who didn’t usually talk to each other during free time started to share conversations. Sometimes another student or I would initiate a topic for the whole group, a movie perhaps, or what they had on the walls in their bedrooms. These group discussions were awkward at first, but soon became more organic.

Often, the topic of our conversation would turn towards food. Students occasionally requested to bring something for others to taste. This started a new tradition: weekly food sharing. A student volunteer would bring something to school, a dish or a dessert or a drink, anything as long as they could share.

One student was excited to share her father’s famous yakisoba noodles. Another student, who was lactose intolerant, brought in chocolate soy milk for people to try. In other settings, I have seen middle school students make disparaging remarks about their classmate’s food, but not during these lunches. Students were careful to thank the sharer, even if they declined the offering. Many students tried a food they had never tried before and some cooked a family recipe with their parents for the first time.

 Communal eating gave us the opportunity to practice social graces: passing food around, complimenting the chef and saying “please” and “thank you.” Students learned to ask about and respect each other’s food allergies. They also gained knowledge about their classmate’s lives and cultures by tasting each other’s food and practicing open-mindedness. Even though it probably still feels like downtime to the students, I now consider lunch as an important part of my middle school curriculum.

Anderson is a middle school humanities and interdisciplinary studies teacher in Oregon.