Florida Schools Early Lunch: Why Students Are Having Their Midday Meal At 9:30 A.M. (VIDEO)

Who hasn't had their share of cold pizza for breakfast? But for high school students across Florida, their 9:30 a.m. meal is no makeshift breakfast from last night's leftovers -- it's lunch time.

At least 60 schools in Florida have received waivers from the Florida Department of Education to bypass a federal mandate requiring schools to serve lunch between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. -- so they can offer the midday meal as early as 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.

And the cafeteria doesn't serve breakfast food for "lunch" at the early hour -- offerings are the same as if students were eating in the middle of the day: burgers, fries, taco salads, barbecue subs, pepperoni and cheese sandwiches.

At one school, lunch starts at 9 a.m. on early-dismissal days and 9:30 a.m. on regular schedule days, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

The extreme lunch times are partly the result of strict schedules that schools follow, according to the Sentinel.

Schools say that the early lunch, the NBC TODAY show reports, is necessary because the new generation of students starts its day much earlier as classes start just after 7 a.m. and the state's high schools are serving breakfast shortly after 6 in the morning. Students are leaving for school as early as 5:30 a.m., Winter Park Ninth Grade Center Principal Dave Stanley told TODAY.

"Definitely all my friends are complaining about having to eat at breakfast time," Winter Park student Aiden Mullen told TODAY. "You know, it shouldn't be like that."

And other students simply don't eat breakfast since lunch is so early. So "lunch" for them, is actually breakfast.

But on the other end, middle schoolers in the state are dealing with the opposite issue: late lunch. Some middle school parents are worried because their children are hungry when lunch times are around 2 p.m., according to the Sentinel's School Zone blog.

Schools elsewhere are attempting different approaches to timing school meals -- and the results are telling. In California, schools have actually pushed back the breakfast hour to serve the first meal during class. More students are eating breakfast, and schools are saving money and minimizing waste. There's also potential for improved student performance.

This move by Florida schools could have also been a point of confusion with respect to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's plan, announced last month, to eliminate potatoes from school breakfasts and drastically reduce the amount of potatoes in school lunches. The initiative aims to reduce students' caloric and starchy intake. The Senate voted this month to block the proposal.

Quick Poll

Is 9:30 a.m. too early for lunch?

Yes! That's when kids should be eating breakfast.

Yes, but I can kind of see why Florida's doing it.

No! It makes perfect sense.

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Comments

[dropthedh]

04:25 PM on 10/31/2011

Happens in NJ but not to avoid a mandate, just happens because the day starts so early.

[Jim8]

02:03 PM on 10/31/2011

Place I used to work at started work at 5 am in order to get around the requirement for car pools, and to accommodate those who couldn't see that they are sacrificing their lives by driving too far to work. It was tough to go out as most lunch places don't open until after 10.

Just have lunch at 12, no matter what.

[gloriab]

11:52 AM on 10/30/2011

It's all about reducing transportation costs. Start one group earlier and then use the same buses to pick up the next group. It's $$$. It's budget cuts.

[SteveDenver]

04:14 AM on 10/30/2011

School BRUNCH?

[janeMarsh3]

12:00 AM on 10/30/2011

Why oh earth are childreN eating at 9:30? What holds the for the rest of the day? We all know that wihtout the proper balance of nutrition that the body shuts down..Brain power is lower...Then the teachers complain that a student is lethargic or not paying attention! What a complete screw up!..How do they expect a student to learn with a lack of nurishment? I think it is outrageous..If I were a parent I would kicking a screamin, intelligency, at their local school board meetings, STAND TOGETHER FOR WHATIS RIGHT and force a change...I personally think this whole thing is an outrage...God help us, our system is so broken and woud appear that too many schools are gettting the short end of the stick. BUT MOSTLY THE STUDENTS..I use to have teachers that SPOKE UP FOR students rights....and won on our behalf (BECAUSE THEY CARED AND WERE NOT PUTTING IN TIME AND WAITING FOR RETIREMANT.THE ENTIRE PRACTICE IS SIMPLY WRONG...AND WE WONDER WHY KIDS ARE NOT DOING WELL..IT IS THANKS IN PART TO MANY TEACHERS WHO JUST DO NOT CARE ANYMOE AND PEOPLE NOT WANTING TO SPEAK UP WHEN SOMETHING IS WRONG...NO ONE WANTS TO BUCK THE STABLISHMENT.WHY NOT? DEFEND YOUR CHILD...KICK AND SCREAM UNTIL THE SYSTEM TURNS ON THEIR HEARING AIDES AND DOES WHAT IS RIGHT FOR OUR UPCOMING YOUNG PEOPLE.TERRIBLE FOR ALL....JANE MARSH

[broui]

11:03 PM on 10/29/2011

I teach at a high school in which the first class starts at 7:20.

First lunch (2 are necessary due to the population size) is 10:30. It's a little early. But then we're done at 2.

[Jim8]

02:05 PM on 10/31/2011

Having been married to a teacher, I know you aren't "done at 2." You get to go home most days at 2, but there is always work to take home.

[Thinkingoutlouder]

08:47 PM on 10/29/2011

Early lunch is a symptom. The problem is school starting too early. Kids leaving for school at 5:30 am is just stupid. Do the people who set this law send their kids this early? It's a good reason to consider homeschooling.

[broui]

11:04 PM on 10/29/2011

Bus drivers determine start times for schools. Bus drivers.

[Lois Salem]

04:35 PM on 10/29/2011

"the state's high schools are serving breakfast shortly after 6 in the morning."

When the hell did the school start serving breakfast? Do they served dinner too?? Maybe some snack time thrown in for good measure?

[Gwenhevare]

05:08 PM on 10/29/2011

We serve breakfast and have a snack in the morning (though with the exception of the poorest kids, they bring their own snack).

[SteveDenver]

04:15 AM on 10/30/2011

So, I assume, a lot of the poorest kids go without a snack.

[mlaiuppa]

03:33 PM on 10/29/2011

School schedules have never been driven by what is best for kids.

They are based on the convenience to the buses and cafeteria and to cut costs.

If high schools server breakfast at 6 am and lunch at 9:30, they can dismiss the cafeteria staff early and then don't have to pay them for a full day. That makes them part time employees. They might even avoid having to pay them benefits that way.

[sacmom3]

12:33 PM on 10/31/2011

SOMEBODY got it right.

[TINA ANDRES]

12:48 PM on 10/29/2011

A teenager waking up at 5:30 am still will not fall asleep until after 10:00 pm. Their brains aren't working very well until after 9:00 am and this situation exacerbates the problem by piling on lack of sleep. They just aren't wired to wake up that early and start intellectual endeavors. Why are they starting school at 7:00 or even earlier? I think this is the real story here. Waking kids up when it is still dark outside is pure torture for both kids and parents.

[Marguerite Caldwell]

12:57 AM on 10/30/2011

That is exactly the problem, Tina!

[TINA ANDRES]

12:33 PM on 10/29/2011

After 25 years as a teacher, not much surprises me anymore but this story did. I can't believe things have become so crazy in Florida that kids are eating lunch this early in the morning. I have never heard of anything like this in California. Many schools have to stagger lunch times, including my child's school, but he certainly isn't eating lunch at 9:30 am. I think the staggered lunch times start at about 11:30 and end at 1:00.

[SoCalifTeacher]

10:01 AM on 10/29/2011

How about this...since welfare mommies seem unable to feed their kids, stop giving them food stamps and give them MREs (military food packets) instead. Three kids times seven meals in a week = 21 MRE's. Milk and juice included. Mommies could pick them up at the grocery store. No excuse for kids not being fed...unless mommies are too lazy to get out of bed and pick them up.

[Synderion]

06:28 PM on 10/29/2011

MREs are great.

[SteveDenver]

04:16 AM on 10/30/2011

Aren't there any daddies where you live?

[theal8r]

09:12 AM on 10/29/2011

I teach in Florida schools and have 2 children who attend at the middle and elementary level.

We leave for school at 6:20; my kids have eaten something small. My youngest attends a pre-school day care, then eats breakfast around 8:30. School begins at 9. She doesn't eat again until 1:30, then school dismisses at 3:40. My oldest eats breakfast at school at 7:45 (school begins at 8), then has lunch around 11:30 with dismissal at 2:35. My students (high schoolers) follow the same pattern. Our district recently banned all snacks in the classroom.

Everything we know about good nutrition and eating habits says this is not a good approach. Students are ravenous come lunch time and gorge themselves in their meager 15 - 20 minutes of actual eating time (we don't account for time to get to the lunch room, wait in line, sit down and the inevitable bathroom breaks in our "30 minute" lunch times). Mid-morning snacks are gone (or placed on the shoulders of increasingly impoverished parents) from most elementary schools and the burden of providing both breakfast and lunch (with adequate time for each) is growing unmanageable for schools as budgets continue to shrink.

Pay attention to what your children's teachers are asking for: we aren't begging for pay raisesof for massive health plans. We're asking for enough money to do what you're asking of us and to do it well. This is just another symptom of the mad dash to de-fund public education.

[megwright]

09:39 PM on 10/29/2011

An eloquent plea, Theal8r. F/F. I understand that schools have to manage to feed a lot of children with too little time and sometimes too little lunchroom space, but I can't for the life of me understand what the Florida schools are doing. My grandchildren had lunch as early as 11:30 one semester followed by a 1:00 lunch the next. I was irate about that very late lunch time. The kids were starving by then and had spent probably an hour before lunch not paying good attention in class because they were so hungry.

One trend in our local schools over the years was to shut down the kitchens that each school had and instead prepare all the meals in one location, then ship them to all the different schools. I wonder if that's part of the problem.

[petcraft]

08:34 AM on 10/29/2011

HORRIBLE ! Many children eat BEFORE coming to school; however early, & others may need only an energy bar, fruit juice &/or milk to hold them over to lunch at the NORMAL lunch time. If these schools, through careful observation, find that much food is now wasted with such early lunches, STOP the waste ! Children who eat breakfast at home with their families might not be able to eat such heavy food so early in the morning (this SHOULD be encouraged when ever possible), & if they force themselves (with a long day ahead without food), there is a chance for obesity. BETTER IDEA: Provide nutritious snacks, like breakfast bars with juice/milk, & serve lunch at the NORMAL lunch time FOR HEALTHIER CHILDREN.

[Suemoni]

09:00 AM on 10/29/2011

YES I agree with you 2000%.

[TINA ANDRES]

12:31 PM on 10/29/2011

Try as I may, my kids just aren't hungry moments after waking up. I pretty much have to coerce and coax them into eating something before school starts at 8:00 am. I pack their lunches and they can have a snack at the recess break. For some kids, it takes some time in the morning before they are hungry. The solution for us is to pack it at home.

[Rasberry]

02:30 PM on 10/31/2011

I have the same issue with my teenager. He NEVER eats in the morning... he leaves for the bus at 6:40 a.m. and his lunch is not until 12:20 p.m. I know he is starving by then. I sneak a granola bar and juice box into his backpack, and encourage him to eat it on the bus, even though I know he's not supposed to.

[doorstepbaby]

08:04 AM on 10/29/2011

My grandchildren are on the bus at 6:20 am every morning. Elementary School. They eat lunch at 10 am and are home at 2:00pm everyday. I think the lunchtime should be during that schools mid-day based on the time they arrive and leave the schools.