New Westminster elementary school students will no longer have to wolf down their lunches in 15 minutes or less come September, if MaryAnn Mortensen has her way.
The local school trustee has put forward a motion to the school board’s operations policy and planning committee to give kids in kindergarten to Grade 8 at least 20 minutes to eat each day.
No district-wide policy currently exist to protect students’ chow time, but most schools allot about 15 minutes out of a roughly 45-minute daily lunch break.
Mortensen, a mother with two students in the district, said even that time is often cut short.
“They’re taking five minutes to go to the washroom to wash their hands,” she said, “and, of course, they’re expected to be outside when the bell rings 15 minutes after they begin, so in the fall and winter months, they’re expected to have boots and coats and things like that on and walking out the door.”
Rushing kids’ eating is bad for their health, according to Mortensen, because they instinctively reach for foods that will fill them up fastest.
“And then they avoid the nutrient-dense foods that take longer to chew, like carrots, celery, fruits,” she said. “A salad, I mean, my kids have never brought a salad, just because of the duration of time it takes to chew it and swallow it.”
This isn’t the first time Mortensen has proposed enshrining students’ eating time in board policy.
A similar motion, put forward in 2011, was rejected.
At the time, Mortensen said the board was told the proposal would cost about $96,000 in extra supervision, but this time around she said she has been told there would be no extra cost.
Acting secretary-treasurer Kevin Lorenz told the Record shifting the current 45 minute lunch period to give students more eating time wouldn’t cost schools any more money, but adding time to the school day would.
"We have not costed out any extension of the day," he said. "Saying that it's no cost is on the presumption that there will be no extension of the day."
Mortensen’s motion will go to the operations policy and planning committee Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
