How to Survive Lunchtime at School

Find a seat where you're going to sit at beforehand. As soon as you arrive at the cafeteria, skim through the seats and find one that you're going to sit at. You can discuss where you're going to sit with your friends and reserve a seat for each of them by putting a lunchbox, water bottle, or other accessory on each of the chairs. Of course, you don't have to actively take detailed notes of every single seat every single day. Just know which group of kids usually sits at each table so that you don't choose a table that other kids usually sit in.

• This way, you don't have to awkwardly walk around, trying to find a seat to sit in.

Talk with people you don't know. If you do not have friends or have recently had friendship problems, you may want to find a fresh start. Lunchtime is a great time to do this. Sit next to a random group of people during lunch and introduce yourself. Then, talk about each of your interests and let the conversation naturally flow. Try not to be nervous- you're not the only one going through this! Act like yourself and do not try to pretend to be someone you aren't.

• For example, do not pretend like you are a hardcore basketball fan, as the real basketball fans sitting next to you will find out.
• Ask the people questions if you have nothing in common with them. Ask them open-ended questions to keep the conversation going.

Enjoy your lunch and talk with friends simultaneously. Try not to forget to eat your lunch while talking with friends. Also, try not to seem uninterested in the conversation and not do anything except eat at the lunch table. This will make you seem like a loner, which is not beneficial when you desperately want to make friends. There needs to be a balance; try to take a few bites of food, swallow them, and then say a few sentences.

• Talk about school, popular culture, or life updates.

Cope with all of the distracting and overwhelming stimuli during lunch. The cafeteria can be notorious for chaos; kids shouting across the table, kids walking around to find a place to sit; younger kids making a mess on the lunch table, and others running around and screaming. In middle school, you may have to deal with another set of issues during lunch; tweens and teens gossiping about romance, the mean girls spreading rumors, and bullying during lunchtime. The excessive smells of all different types of lunches can also overwhelm and confuse some kids.

• Sit near the exit of the cafeteria or auditorium if you can. If you ever need to take a break from the chatter, you can leave easily this way. After you've left the stressful environment, take some time to practice mindfulness, meditate in the bathroom, or take a walk around the school to calm yourself down. ^[1]
• If you feel overwhelmed, try to stim or fidget. These can be short-term relief. Tap your feet, repeat a certain word or phrase, bounce in your chair, or play with a stim toy.
• Pack a bland lunch if you're over-sensitive to smell and taste and pack a strong-tasting lunch if you're under-sensitive. If you get cafeteria food, request for the school to offer a wider variety of options instead of all very bland or very strong-tasting food.
• Talk to your school administrators for special accommodations for kids like you with sensory processing difficulties or conditions such as autism or ADHD. Provide comfortable chairs, allow kids to use headphones to block out noise, and eliminate buzzing or flickering lights. ^[2]

Deal with not getting enough time to eat at lunch. Lunch is usually 20-40 minutes long, but that may seem like only 5 minutes when the alarm rings for recess, nap time (for schools/workplaces in countries like Spain, Costa Rica, Greece, Taiwan, and China, midday naps are common ^[3] ), or the next class. You may have barely finished or needed just a few more bites until you finished. There are many reasons for not finishing; distractions, no appetite, stress, and being slower at eating can all prevent you from finishing your lunch. If you don't want to waste food, figure out why you finish late and brainstorm ways to solve this.

• Keep a balance between talking with friends and eating. Some people are able to scarf down a whole meal quickly to spend the rest of lunch chit-chatting, but most are unable to do that. Some people spend the whole time on eating, and some talk the whole time while forgetting that their lunch is on the table. Take a few bites of food, swallow them, and then talk for a minute or two.
• Figure out why you have a lack of hunger. Did you eat a large breakfast or snack during the break? Are you bloated, have constipation, or have a stomachache? Are period cramps ruining your appetite? Do you have a lot of stress recently?
• Once you have found out why you have a lack of hunger, find ways to solve it. Eat less breakfast or pack a smaller snack. Before going to school, eat foods that do not cause bloating, constipation, or other stomach distress. Eliminate the causes of stress by not procrastinating and asking for help if you need it. If you have bad period cramps, stick on an adhesive heating pad or take pain medication.
• If you have braces, it can be difficult to eat fast enough. Your mouth may be sore or have a lot of pain, making you not finish fast enough. Use dental wax or silicone wax to cover up sharp spots, eat soft foods, and take pain medication for your braces.

Deal with the unappetizing food given to you during lunch. If your parents pack your lunch, you may feel unhappy with it if it's always the same sandwich or bad-tasting vegetable salad. If you get cafeteria food, you may feel tired of eating junk food or bad-tasting "slop". The pizza may taste too hard or oily, the mac-and-cheese too soupy, and the fried rice too inauthentic. Plus, all the different foods' smells mixed together in an enclosed cafeteria may make you lose your appetite or gag if it smells weird. Imagine bad-tasting chicken wings, udon noodles, samosas, yogurt, a ham sandwich, and bean soup all mixed together into one smell!

• Ask your parents if you can pack your own lunch. If you do not know how to cook using the stove, prepare easy meals such as a sandwich. If you are older (around 9), you may want to start using the microwave to warm up food. At around 11-14, you may want to get accustomed to kitchen appliances such as stoves, ovens, and rice cookers and how to operate them safely.
• If you get school food, request for the school to offer healthier food options. Many countries such as France, Spain, Greece, Taiwan, China, and Japan offer healthy school lunches. Japan's lunches are considered the healthiest; a typical meal consists of rice, a serving of vegetables, some meat, and a small bowl of soup. ^[4]
• If you're in the U.S., you may find that much of your school food is not that healthy. Offer alternatives to "junk food", such as growing vegetables in a school garden, cooking meals for everyone to eat at school (common in Asian countries), or buying school lunches from a different and healthier lunch vendor.