As a veteran student of Marine Leadership Academy, I -Brandon Guzman- a junior here at MLA- have been part of this family for over 5 years. I have been attending MLA since I was in 7th grade. There are pros and cons to this school. Although the majority of the teachers here are very well educated and very respectful, like any other school there are going to be cons and things certain students don’t agree with. One of the things I don’t agree with and a lot of my peers also don’t agree with is off-campus lunch and not being able to order food. 

Back in 7th grade, I remember being able to order food and get it delivered without MLA staff taking it away. My brother, a former MLA student from the years of 2017-2021, reportedly recalls a time when off-campus lunch was available to all, but it got taken away for the whole MLA and only current MLA seniors were able to have off-campus lunch. 

 My peers and I would like to change that. Although many agree that lunch is one of the most important meals of the day, many students would rather starve until they arrive home rather than eat what is being served at the school. I suggest students have their right to either be able to order food or have parents’ consent that they can go out and get food BUT STILL COME BACK. Although I know many students disagree, education is very important in a human’s life so if a student were to leave for lunch it should be mandated to return back to school. 

While getting multiple opinions from students and teachers in regard to off-campus lunch, I went ahead and asked Mr.Hender, an MLA science teacher, a couple of questions regarding off-campus lunch. Mr. Hender believes, “Students should have off-campus lunch in certain cases. I think juniors and seniors should be able to have off-campus lunch, [specifically] students with attendance that is above 95% and students in good academic standing, no Ds and Fs. He also noted that open-campus lunch allows students freedom and variety of food choices. However, he was concerned about students being responsible for being back on time, “We live in Chicago-  so students wouldn’t be able to walk and come back and still make it on time since there isn’t much of a variety of food around campus.” 

I went ahead and did a poll for a couple of students that attend Marine Leadership Academy, one of them is a freshman and the rest of the four are juniors. I went ahead and asked a couple of questions in a questionnaire about off-campus lunch. All the students I questioned answered that they would be going off campus for more than 2 times a week. The majority also said that they only eat cafeteria food about 2 times a week or less. The fact that students are eating cafeteria food twice a week is a concern and should be taken into consideration and other alternative options for students – off-campus lunch – should be provided.