This year some PHS students may notice that there have been fewer lunch options for food, leaving students with only one or two choices of meals. The cooks have faced many challenges early this school year, but one of the greatest challenges is the increase in the number of students. PHS has approximately 150 more students in-seat as compared to last year.  More students means the cooks have to make more food and predict what meal choice more students will want. Staff shortages have also contributed to the problem.

“We were down a cook so the first week was rough for us with the bigger numbers,” said PHS lunch lady Tara Gibson.  As the lunch shifts move along there becomes less and less food for the last two lunch shifts.The last two years of school, PHS has created a 4th lunch shift to provide better social distancing so now the ladies have to worry about four lunch shifts instead of three.

Students should now see more variety in the lunchroom from the first few weeks of school. Gibson said, “We have a part time helper now so it’s gotten much better.” Next time you grab a tray you might want to let the lunch ladies know you appreciate them because each one of them are very important to PHS and do hard jobs and keep all of the students fed.