Have you ever sat in your quiet class, everyone minding their own business, and your stomach starts to rumble? You try your best to quiet it down, you search your entire backpack for a snack or even gum, but you can’t seem to find anything. You ask your friend in that class if they have anything for you to snack on and they have nothing. You look at the clock and it says 10:30 a.m., and your lunch isn’t until seventh period. What do you do?
Oswego High School is lucky enough to have snack and drink vending machines. The problem for us is that they are open in the morning until 7:10 a.m., and they open back up at the end of the day at 2:26 p.m. Students should be able to use the vending machines provided by the school to grab a snack during the school day. Before this year, most of the vending machines were open during the day except lunch hours, giving people the opportunity to choose a snack and drink instead of a full lunch. Although closing vending machines during lunch hours was inconvenient, it still gave students an opportunity to get a snack or drink during non-lunch periods.
“They should be reopened because I am starved throughout my day,” junior Jenny Uribe says, “I have lunch [fourth period], so my stomach is growling sixth and seventh period, and I have no way of getting food.”
Students’ daily lives are affected by the fact that they can’t get essential things to help them throughout their day. Having access to the vending machine throughout the day allows students to get food whenever they need.
“A lot of people don’t have time to eat in the morning before they leave for school and they may not have food at home to bring in,” sophomore Alayza Martinez explains.
Instead of trying to wait out your hunger, it would be ideal to get a snack anytime throughout the day.
“It would be fair to get a snack at the school rather than waiting until you get home just to get a bag of chips,” Sophomore Saniyah Williams says.
Not only do the closed vending machines affect the students, but they affect the school as well.
Sophomore Ryleigh Schmacht weighs in, “It’s not a smart move because you get money from kids buying snacks. Kids are hungry.”
In my own experience, I have found myself hungry on multiple occasions throughout the school day. I get to eat my lunch during the second half of fourth period, but by the time sixth period comes around, I’m hungry again. All I think about is what my next snack is.
“If students are hungry, they need a snack. They won’t be able to focus on their studies as much because they’ll be distracted by their own hunger,” sophomore Jacob Wester says.
As upset as we are, we are also confused.
“There were lines that were building up because [the machines] were used so frequently,” sophomore Andrea Campos says. It just doesn’t make sense to close the vending machines at a time when they are used so much.
As grateful as I am that the school has provided vending machines available to use before and after school, I believe that they should leave them open during a time that’s more convenient for students to actually use. It would be more beneficial to leave them open during lunch hours or even throughout the whole day.
