School district seeks solution to long lunch lines

Students in Danville Public Schools started the new school year with a new lunch policy that provides free lunches for everyone.

It's great for parents' wallets, but it's created a sticky situation for one of the schools.

The free lunches mean fewer students packing their lunches, and that means much longer lunch lines.

"At George Washington High School we feed about 735, the second week went up to about 820 per lunch. They hit 879 this week," said Stacey Ensminger, Director of Child Nutrition for Danville Public Schools.

She said part of the reason is because of the USDA program the school division qualified for which makes free school lunches available for everyone. However, it may also be what's slowing down the lunch operation.

Susan Dalton has a child at G.W. Dalton said her child and her classmates are experiencing it first hand.

"They have an issue most days even getting through the line before the bell rings and they're late for their sixth period class," she said.

"They actually have made an adjustment," said Dr. Stanley Jones, Danville Public Schools Superintendent. "Lunches last year were 25 minutes, now they're 30 minutes."