After a tiring day, one of the best ways to unwind includes eating your favorite foods, but the cafeteria can’t always accommodate every student’s preference. Ordering food for delivery might be a good way to solve this issue, but now, students aren’t allowed to have food delivered. Should this issue be re-evaluated by the district?

Every day students get to choose between three or four different meal options or bring their own food. However, this leaves little room for people with allergies or preferences and coming up with things to bring for lunch every day can be difficult and expensive. So what about delivery?

Allowing students to get food delivered would solve most of the problems listed above. However, it might create new ones. With so many students in our school, if multiple students ordered delivery, it could send extra and potentially dangerous visitors into the building.

The USDA Food and Nutrition Service has rules that don’t allow any food to compete with food from our school’s cafeteria. Outside food places like McDonald’s or Wendy’s would-be competitors to our school’s meals. These rules have been implemented for all schools across the United States, not just Lafayette.

Mrs. Katie Franklin, an English teacher at Lafayette, believes students shouldn’t be allowed to get food delivered. She stated that for the safety of both students and staff, it’s best to keep outsiders out of the building. Several daily deliveries allow at least five or six unauthorized people into the building. While security does its best to check all visitors, it’s impossible to eliminate any risk.

Teachers aren’t the only ones to have this opinion. Leonardo Hernandez Martinez, a Lafayette senior, doesn’t think students should be able to get delivery. “Will they have to be searched for everything and have the food inspected? Will there be a station in the front office for food to be dropped off?” He brought up all the possible issues, like how students would get their food from drivers. “There’s just too many procedures and checks for this to go smoothly, and it’ll be a chaotic disaster.”

But some students do think delivery should be permitted. Tessa Franklin, a sophomore at Lafayette, believes students should be allowed to order delivery. However, there should be restrictions in place. “I think that there should be passes teachers collect. Everyone gets like five, and you can get more. It could be a reward system. High schoolers are smart enough to manage what they can and can’t eat.” But she also sees potential issues. “People on free and reduced lunch might see other people getting food delivered and feel excluded.” Meredith Kirby, a sophomore, also thinks delivery should be allowed. “There should definitely be a limit on it. But they should be allowed because it would be cool.”

While allowing students to have food delivered might sound like a good idea, it would take a lot of work to plan and make it safe for students and staff.

For now, we recommend students simply bring their lunch or buy it from the cafeteria.