Tens of thousands of city students are forced to eat lunch at outrageous hours — including some as early as 9 a.m. — thanks to citywide shortage of cafeteria space in public schools.
A whopping 56% of schools have started serving lunch by 11 a.m., according to an analysis of Education Department records by WNYC’s SchoolBook.org website and the Daily News.
The new data also shows 113 city schools make some or all of their students eat their only meal of the school day by 10 a.m. — with no scheduled break for food again until instruction ends at around 3 p.m.
“If you’re hungry in class it’s distracting, because you can’t really focus,” said Lalita Sarjue, 18, a senior at Jamaica High School in Queens, who eats lunch at 9:07 a.m. — just 17 minutes after her school day begins at 8:50 a.m.
After that, the growing teen has more than five hours of class left, with no other breaks for food.
By the end of the day Lalita is famished. “You don’t have any energy left,” Lalita said. “You can’t do stuff you did earlier in the day.”
Educators say the Bloomberg administration’s policy of collocating smaller, themed schools in a single school building is one cause of the city’s early lunch times.
Lalita’s school, Jamaica High School, now shares its building with four other schools. Students attending Jamaica Gateway to the Sciences, another school within the building, don’t eat lunch until 1:21 p.m. — more than five hours after their day begins.
Likewise, students who attend six small schools inside the Theodore Roosevelt Educational Campus in the Bronx face similar scheduling issues.
Anthony Gonzalez, 14, a freshman at Knowledge and Power Prep Academy in the Theodore Roosevelt building, eats lunch at 9:09 a.m. each day.
He says the early lunch schedule leaves him starving by the time class lets out six hour later. “It’s like eating breakfast twice. By noon I’m a little tired. My eyes get drowsy and I’m not as focused as I would be,” Gonzalez said.
City education officials said shared buildings aren’t the only cause of the public schools’ wacky lunch times.
Some large, high performing schools, such as Richmond Hill High School in Queens and Tottenville High School in Staten Island, hold lunch in shifts beginning at 9 a.m. students can create their own schedules.
Serving lunch that early in the morning sets kids up for trouble, said child nutrition expert and registered dietician Melissa Halas-Liang.
“After about three-and-a-half hours, the fuel from that meal is going to wear off,” said Halas-Liang. “Kids get headaches. They’re not going to be able to focus.”
For years city principals have set their own lunch times for schools, with little or no input from central Education Department administrators. But now, at the urging of schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, city officials will investigate the problem and look for solutions.
“The Chancellor finds this data disturbing,” said Education Department spokesman Devon Puglia. “We are going to work towards improvements – this has been an issue that has gone overlooked for too long.”
With Eric Badia and Coulter Jones
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