Tissa Amaira

WJ faculty members pass out meals to families. MCPS has allocated a 75 minute lunch period for meal distributions.

In a normal school year, WJ already has a lengthy lunch of 45 minutes. Students utilized this time to go out to G-Square and grab some food, eat lunch and relax or even cram for a test that they might have next period. In some aspects, lunch hasn’t changed much for students in times of virtual school. With virtual school going on, MCPS has allocated 75 minutes of lunch. This additional time was added to allow free meals to be distributed for families who have decided to take part in the program. But not everyone in the county participates in this free meal plan. So, with an extra 30 minutes added to lunch breaks, what can students do to fill up all their time?

Eat or prepare lunch
This one seems kind of obvious. With a lot of time for lunch, you can use it for its main purpose. Eating can increase your concentration, give energy to plow through classes and can be a good way to spend time with family.

If you’re feeling motivated, you can even make lunch! For starters, an easy dish to make (and probably a favorite of many) is spaghetti. Another simple dish you can try are lunch wraps. You can mix and match your desired fillings and put it into one wrap! Of course, there are still many other dishes that you can try to make, be adventurous, maybe you’d find one you really like.

Do homework and study
A long lunch period is the perfect time to finish school work that has yet to be done or homework that was just assigned. If you don’t want to be stuck doing homework for hours after school, just use your lunch time to do them. Granted, it does kind of defeat the purpose of lunch and also takes away some time for relaxation. But with good time management, there will be a fair amount of time to spend not doing school work. This time is also good for studying. Who knows, maybe you have a test next period or you just want to refresh your brain. You can spend time reviewing material without having to cram like you might do if you were at school.

Go outside
Maybe you’re tired of staring at a screen all day. Why not go outside? If the weather is nice, walking, biking and going for a jog are some of the active things you can do. If you don’t want to do any physical activities, you can sit around outside, maybe hang a hammock and enjoy the breeze. It’s also a good way to get fresh air after being stuck inside for a long time.

Relax
School can be stressful sometimes, and the extra lunch time can be used to destress and relax. Relaxing can be done in many different ways. Watching TV, sleeping and reading books are just some of the things you can do to wind down. Playing games and scrolling through social media can also be a relaxing activity.

There are many other things that you can do to fill up your time. Every person is different, so there is no guarantee that everyone will enjoy these activities. But, these are just a few things that can maybe give you an idea of what to do during lunch.