School Meal Rotation : Is It Really Effective?

             Recently, a new policy has been implemented in Korean Minjok Leadership Academy (KMLA). For a nice, hot meal, students have to wait wave by wave to have their plates full. Traditionally, students received their meals in the descending order of third graders to first graders; however, due to the order of the school principle and Mr. Sung, the school adopted the meal rotation policy. This new policy brought debate between the students: Traditional or Reformed? The debate is based on two aspects: practicality and efficiency.

             One major concern that the students have is the practicality of the policy. The policy has been around for about two months since Mr. Sung Hun-Jae announced it Monday morning assembly. The reason that the policy was adopted was that the freshmen were not getting adequate amount of food that they deserve. True, freshmen students have frequently experienced the frustrating moments of lacking delicacies. Especially, when there were favorable dishes such as meat or noodles, the dishes were quickly exhausted even before it reached the first graders. To relieve the unfair distribution, the students are to rotate every few weeks or so. The wave that ate the last in this term will be first in next term, second to last, and first to second. The policy seemed like an effective solution, but it turned out to be an ideal one. Even after the policy was adopted, lacking of meals frequently showed. Consequently, the policy was not able to serve its full purpose.

             Efficiency is another troubling aspect of KMLA's meal rotation policy. Actually, there had been large amount of complain from seniors and juniors after the policy was adopted. Complains were that the meal rotation policy is taking away the free time available during lunch time and dinner time. The order of receiving the meal does have a serious impact on the free time available during meal time. The first order has the most efficiency of saving time for other activities. Students can eat lunch or dinner right after classes, and then have about remaining time of thirty minutes. On the other hand, being the last is most inefficient. Before meal time is too short to concentrate fully on something. After, students have to go to classes right away. As students become higher graders, school life becomes more busy and students have less time. Seniors and juniors, who need to use time efficiently, need to gain the most efficiency possible from meal times. Freshmen, who are going to be seniors and juniors in the future, understand such matters. In addition, confusion of the rotation term only made the cafeteria to be more crowded at times, with two wavers being in the same place. Thus, the policy eventually brought lower efficiency.

             In all, KMLA had debates and conflicts regarding the meal rotation policy. While some like the new policy, some find flaws in the policy, flaws which make backfiring results. The lacking of food is a serious problem and needs to be solved, but current meal rotation policy also needs some changes to most effectively solve the problem. The different situations of students needs to be considered.