Opinion: Re-Open the Nutrition Bar

September 28, 2021

Last year, covid made some pretty impactful changes to our everyday school life. With protocols slowly getting back to normal, One issue students are still wondering about is the nutri-bar. It was taken away last year in response to the pandemic and distancing concerns. We expected to see it make a return this year, but it is still shut down. Students grades seven and up loved the nutri-bar and found it a convenient place to get snacks and water whenever they needed. This is why we want it to be re-opened.

The Nutrition Bar benefits should be brought back. The main concern the school had last year was that it would be too big of a congregation area, leading it to be harder to contact trace. On top of that issue, a new issue was presented of the kitchen being understaffed. 

As much as the students would love to see Adam behind the Nutri-Bar counter again, we understand how it is hard to get workers at this time. But, to bring back the options the Nutri-Bar provided would not interfere with the lack of workers. If we can not have the snack counter, the regular lunch room can offer the snack options of popcorn, cinnamon twists, pretzels, and bagels. These snacks were nice to have to give us more variety of options.

Another benefit is the Nutri-Bar provides a chance to get a snack at any time of the day. It was easy to get a bagel first period if one did not have time to eat breakfast. Also a midday snack when we are waiting for lunch. It also provided a place to get water at any time. 

The benefits of the Nutrition Bar should be given a second look. For later in this year and for future years, this was a helpful, enjoyable aspect of school for all students. It could potentially be set up as a “grab and go” type of thing. But we could take small steps to having it completely back to normal by adding some food options into our everyday lunch.