Since the beginning of October, every week from Tuesday through Thursday there is a reduced amount of students eating lunch at the cafeteria.  This is due to The Young Life House just down the street from the high school.  The Young Life House has been doing this for over 28 years.  All of these people going to the Young Life House have had a dramatic impact on the cafeteria as a result is down in profit.

“Because of the Young Life House our cafeteria has been down in profit for years,” said Barbara Youngren, a staff member in the school cafeteria.

This is having a negative impact on the school. The school cafeteria has already had to replace over 5000 pounds of food lost in the fire on Oct. 8.  Now the school is losing more money due to the Young Life House.

The cafeteria is not throwing away much food at all.  However, the Young Life House is still having a very big effect on the cafeteria.  Last year the cafeteria was down $70,000 alone in profit.  The Young Life House plays a part in this due to the fact that it is very close to the school, and hands out free food.  This reduces the number of students ordering lunch at the cafeteria.  On a bad day only about 150 kids show up in the cafeteria out of the 1500 students in the entire school.

The reason for a lot of people going down to the Young Life House is because the food is free and there has always been many complaints about the cafeteria food. The food is not the cafeteria’s fault in fact it is mostly the governments.  The cafeteria is only allowed to put a certain amount of sugar, fat and even grain in the lunches now.  The other reason is that lunches cost approximately $3.45, and there is also only $10 charge limit.  If students go over the $10 limit they are denied lunch.

On Monday and Friday, all of the regular students show up to order from the cafeteria as the Young Life House is closed.  However, on Tuesday there is a significant decrease in the number of students showing up for food.  It is the same with Wednesday and Thursday.  There’s no way the cafeteria staff can anticipate the number of students showing up for lunch.  As a result the people in the kitchen are always watching numbers.  Every day they have to make production sheets to make sure they are not wasting food.

If they make the same amount of food on Monday and Friday as they do for Tuesday through Thursday for the duration of the Young Life House the school is in for a major loss.

At the Young Life House during lunch the line is all the way out into the street.  The food is free and decent.  The location of the Young Life House also plays a role in the amount of students going for lunch as it is only three blocks away from the school.

This is taking away money from our school.  We have spent a great fortune on replacing our school lunches that were lost in the fire. Now we are continuing to throw away food.  This money that we are wasting on food could go a variety of other things, such as new computers and textbooks.

One way to solve this is to take accurate roll of the kids who actually need hot lunch.  Another way we could stop this is to close the school campus.  If we do this people will start having to buy more lunches from the cafeteria.  Another option is to have two lunch periods like we have had at this school in the past.  If we have two lunches then people won’t have as much time to leave the campus. These three options would increase the amount of profit the cafeteria brings in.  Both of these options would help the cafeteria out of the red zone.

If we continue to let The Young Life House take business away from our cafeteria are school will be in for a very serious loss in money.  This will also increase the amount of food thrown out as know one is eating it.