Middle Schoolers eat lunch in the main school cafeteria, Malone Dining Hall. However, a lot of Middle Schoolers don’t like the food and skip lunch because they don’t have other options. Upper Schoolers have the benefit of another cafeteria, Hawkins, but they are also welcome to go to Malone whenever they want. Hawkins serves different food compared to Malone, and Upper Schoolers get both options every day. Middle Schoolers believe we should get access to both cafeterias. Upper Schoolers, however, do not want to share.
Upper schoolers like both cafeterias and appreciate their options. 11th grader Sam Montag “prefers Malone’s food cause typically there’s greater variety.” Senior Hayes Carroll has no preference. “It really depends on what these places have on the menu, most days I would say I get my lunch from Malone . . . because I tend to like the options they have there,” he says. “But if I do not like what is being offered in Malone, I will go to Hawkins and get a sandwich and chips.”
Sam Montag and Hayes Carroll both state that they do not want to see Middle Schoolers in Hawkins because it is an Upper School privilege. “I think it should be an Upper School privilege,” says Carroll. “I do not want to see a bunch of Middle Schoolers going into our space. I would prefer for that to stay Upper-School-only because once you guys get to ninth grade, you guys will get to go as much as you want. All the little Middle Schoolers won’t be there . . . it will be really special for y’all.” 11th grader Sam Montag entirely agrees and says that when he was in Middle School, he “kind of saw it as a privilege for Upper Schoolers.”
11th-grader Ella Fairman offers a compromise that Middle Schoolers might be able to eat food from Hawkins, just not sit there. “Hawkins food maybe . . . [but] I do not know if Middle Schoolers should be sitting around in Hawkins.”
Upper Schoolers say that when they were in Middle School, and wanted more options. Hayes Carroll states that he “would basically get an apple or a cup of salad croutons and just [leave]” and that he “never really ate unless it was something really popular like chicken fingers or burgers.” Sam Montag entirely agrees and states that the lunches were very bad, particularly during COVID-related measures. “Personally no, I didn’t. I was in Middle School when lunches were given in the lunch boxes, and they were often kind of just soggy boxes, so no, I didn’t.”
Many Upper School Students have been in our place and wanted to eat at Hawkins, but they now believe that it should be an Upper School privilege. Hawkins is an Upper School-dominated territory they do not want to give up.