Next year’s juniors and seniors will eagerly await the letter awarding their status for Open Lunch, the chance to leave campus and eat food of their own choosing for once. The lucky students who no longer have to traipse through lunch lines to get soggy tacos rejoice. Little do they know that Open Lunch, as glorious as it may be, may take a toll on both their wallet and their nutrition.

Open Lunch is an honor that not everyone receives. To qualify, juniors must earn an 85 percent average on all of their previous District semester tests while seniors either have to have an 85 percent average on junior semester tests or do well on the state issued Smarter Balance tests. The freedom that comes with Open Lunch is exactly what students need to rejuvenate their exhausted minds. Being able to meet friends at Bagel Boy or go home to warm up some delicious leftovers is the pinnacle of upperclassman privilege. However, for those who do not have a car or do not have the money to spend $7 on a bagel every day, Open Lunch is not as friendly of an option.

One would hope that the school could accommodate these students, but it is quite the opposite. On my first day of junior year, I couldn’t quite grasp the concept of the whole Open Lunch thing, so I stayed in the comfort of the cafeteria. Apparently that was not what I was supposed to do. As the bell rang, a staff member came over to tell me that the cafeteria was at capacity with underclassmen and that if I had Open Lunch I should find somewhere else to eat, because there was no room there. This was a shock to me. What if I couldn’t leave the school for some reason? Where else was I supposed to go? I later found out that students could sit in the dim auditorium, silently munching their baked chips from the school store. This did not seem adequate to house students who need to study, eat and socialize just like anyone else.

My other concern was what these students could eat if not going out. Of course, bringing food from home is a very viable option, but not everyone thinks that far ahead. The main source of food besides the cafeteria is the school store, and even that provides little to no real sustenance. I have seen students walk out of the school store holding towers of cookies, a 100 calorie bag of popcorn or even nothing but a Diet Coke (okay, I’m guilty of this one). Although the store has a wide variety of snacks to satisfy the small cravings, it is quite hard to put together a nutritional meal with prepackaged “healthy” food.

Even those who do go out don’t quite have balanced meals either. Sure, Qudoba once is well and good, but five days a week is excessive. Unfortunately there is a lack of “healthy” (I use this term lightly) fast food restaurants surrounding LHS and there is only so much nutritional value one can find in a Butterburger. Along with unhealthy options, the cost of going out is borderline ridiculous. The $5 Juice Stop, $8 burrito and the $6 HyChi rice bowl all add up. So many high schoolers are working only to spend their paycheck on lunch.

Though there are some technicalities of Open Lunch that make it difficult to deal with, all in all it is quite nice to qualify for. It provides upperclassmen with the freedom to make their own decisions and use their time responsibly. There are definitely ways to remedy the few flaws too. Carpooling can save gas, going home or packing lunch can save money, fresh and filling options in the school store could provide nutritional lunch options and a designated study or eating space could accommodate those who cannot go out. Future students will have to work with what they can get while they enjoy the privilege of Open Lunch.