Over the past years at Smoky, a closed area filled the space between the large lunch area where students receive their lunch. It had no purpose, until recently Smoky Hill decided to re-open this area.
Every day the lunch room has a great number of students who crowd to get lunch in one of the two lines that serve food. An empty space, which has the words “Snack Bar” above it, had been closed off over the last years. Until the school recently came to a decision to finally re-open the area, creating an additional third line for students.
“I talked to my supervisor, and just said it would be a good thing for you guys here at this school,” Mrs. Sona, the new kitchen manager, said.
The snack bar has items from snacks to beverages available for purchase. Despite its primary usage being for snacks, the bar provides additional meal options for students, making it easier for kids to quickly grab something to eat instead of waiting in the other lunch lines.
“We also sell lunch here. We don’t have all the options but we have grab-and-go options,” Sona said.
Although, unlike the free lunch program in effect at Smoky, the snacks do cost money.
“So you can use your school I.D and if you have money on your account, or your parents can add money to your account, and then it’s cash or check, no credit cards,” Sona said.
While it is new to the current students at Smoky, the snack bar has been open before over ten years ago.
“My stepmother is happy it’s finally open again, she went here from 1999 – 2002, and she remembers it,” Seamus Joyce (10) said.
A portion of the student body has some appreciation for the new addition to the lunchroom.
“I think actually it’s really smart of them to open it up, it might be a little more work for the lunch ladies but also is less work because then there’s a whole place for people to get their snacks,” Joyce said.
“I think it’s good to have, especially when you don’t want to have a large meal or you don’t like the lunch choices,” Cassandra Guerra (10) said.
The re-opening of this space hopes to allow more space, easy grab-and-go food items, and different varying snacks to all students. This is something new and different for the students to experience, and all will get to see how well it contributes to the school as time goes on.
