As the noon lunch bell rings, a large crowd of upperclassmen stampedes to their cars before racing off campus to get lunch, while another crowd of underclassmen rushes to the school lunch lines.
Since off-campus lunch is a privilege exclusive to juniors and seniors, some underclassmen previously relied on services such as Doordash and Uber Eats to get outside food delivered to the school. That ended last year when the school banned such deliveries, and enforcement of the policy has been stepped up this year.
The first instinct of younger students may be to call it unfair. And in some ways, they’re right. The school has essentially removed one of the only ways they can get outside food.
In the larger picture, though, this ban has proven beneficial to the school and the safety of its environment.
The school has cited numerous problems with food delivery services. Because there is little coordination between drivers and students, drivers were showing up to the office leaving food behind to sit there for hours or even days.
Food delivery drivers would also argue with office staff about payment. Because the people who ordered the food were often not there to make payment, and the office was not responsible for the order, explosive clashes would occur, sometimes resulting in drivers storming off in anger.
Perhaps most concerning of all, these services also pose a security risk.
Unidentified strangers entering campus to bring food for students, even if they do not visibly pose a threat, still stir uncertainty as nobody can confirm who these drivers are. Being able to identify the people on campus is critical for student safety, especially in light of numerous national school safety incidents in 2018 alone.
Freshmen and sophomores should respect the Doordash ban and wait their turn for off-campus meals. For now, they can bring their own lunches or, if they forget them, ask their parents to deliver food to a table outside the office. And parents won’t charge the extra fees tacked on by Doordash.
If all else fails, underclassmen can always just buy school lunches.
