This May, the Bishop Blanchet administration had the idea of instituting a “one lunch” schedule in which every student would have lunch in a single period just five minutes longer than regular lunch.

Over the years, Bishop Blanchet has handled lunch in a number of ways. At one point, there were three different lunches according to an alum. Now, the school may be going in an entirely different direction.

But before any permanent changes can be made, the school had to first conduct a few test lunches to see how a single lunch period would play out for students and faculty.

The idea for a one lunch came out of a desire to allow more time for students to meet together during school hours and consult teachers if need be. However with the one lunch comes some challenges…

“There’s too many people!” said junior Benhur Tesfamariam, “I just don’t like it at all, and they already said people can’t [go off campus] so there’s no point in discussing it.”

What many students have proposed is the idea of leaving campus to get food during the one lunch so as to avoid the traffic of students in the lunch line. With the shops at Green Lake and Northgate not too far away, students say they’d enjoy the option.

The administration, however, rejects the notion of students going off campus in fear of liability issues. So if any progress is to be made on that front, then some seriously lengthy debate is to be had.

Senior Deaborah Gebreyesus hadn’t been able to attend the one lunch herself, but had heard quite a bit from friends and throughout the hallways.

“I’ve heard that they always run out of food,” she said, “there’s no space in the cafeteria for everyone because we live in Seattle and it rains like, 90% of the year and we have the last two weeks of the school year where it’s sunny, so I guess we’re okay, right now, but but for the majority of the year, nobody’s going to want to go outside!”

Students are able to spend the one lunch in other parts of the school where they couldn’t in a regular lunch period, such as the gym or any classroom a teacher is in, however the cafeteria and the Norcliffe Student Commons seemed to be a hot-spot for most students during lunch.

One part of the cafeteria which seemed to be the exception to the one lunch madness was the Brave Cafe Express.

Someone working behind the register said, “The Express is fine because their are two routes for students, but in the kitchen everyone goes through one. For those in the kitchen, it’s a large amount of food that needs to be made all at once and then kept. I don’t know that we could do this everyday.”

Sophomore and kitchen food server Willow Berryessa said, “It is a lot of work, but I like seeing all my friends here at the same time…I don’t know that it’s possible, it’s easier to split things up. We’ll just have to see, I guess.”

There are a number of students who have to wait in line for a great deal of time despite efforts to expedite the process.

“It’s out of control, too many people, not enough seats, terrible weather outside, not a quick enough line, it’s too loud in here, not a good atmosphere,” said juniors Andrew Hollomon and Christopher Dyckman, “we should  (to go) off campus, I don’t want to have to wait so (long) for my food, this is ridiculous.”

Some students are hopeful as long as the one lunch was implemented with certain stipulations.

“We should at least go off campus,” said junior Kellen Back, “or make the lunch longer.”

Students who rely on lunch as a means of studying for forthcoming assessments or doing work won’t have time if they’re forced to wait in line for lengthy periods of time or are swamped in a crowded area.

“I got really overwhelmed with so many people crowding around our table and so much going on,” said junior Mia Singh, “normally, I like to get in and get my food so I have to time to review and study for quizzes in my next classes, but I didn’t have time because I didn’t get anything I wanted in the Grab-n-Go line and couldn’t get my taco salad, which I was looking forward to.”

Perhaps the one lunch could be a way for everyone to enjoy days leading up to a break at the end of the year when the weather is more cooperative and school less demanding.

For now, however, many around school have trouble coming to grips with the one lunch in its current form.