A common problem continues to arise each day at Lake Stevens High School. The Vikings are finding themselves standing in ridiculously long lines everyday at lunch when waiting to heat up their food in the microwaves. Currently, the cafeteria has two microwaves available to the students at lunch. This causes a large backup in the lunchroom leading to minimal eating time for the students who wait in this lengthy microwave line.

The microwave line follows the rules of first come first serve, but there are only two microwaves available. The students who come from the furthest buildings are struggling to get to the microwave in time before the line backs up about six people deep. These students have no choice but to sit in the lines for the microwave if they want to have their food warm enough to eat.

 “There are times when I sit in the microwave line for up to twenty five minutes, no joke,” senior Blake Becker said. 

Due to the fact that the Vikings lunch time only lasts thirty-five minutes, uf waiting in the microwave line can take up to twenty-five minutes, that means that some students are only given ten minutes to find a seat and eat their lunch before leaving.

“I have asked a random kid who I don’t even know if I could throw my food in with him because I didn’t want to wait any longer… The problem with that was that our food didn’t heat properly because both of our meals were in there at once,” senior Max Bosse said. 

This just furthers the reasoning that these students are left with the least amount of options as possible. Students are left to have to double up in the microwave because they are worried they will not even have enough time to eat. It has become apparent that all students who use the microwave are frustrated with the wait time of these lines.

“We have been in the talks with Jason Pearson about getting our hands on more microwaves; we should see a change in the near future. The only other precaution that needs to be taken is ensuring the cleanliness of the microwaves,” Associate Principal Tonya Grinde said.

“ASB now has a schedule sheet of which students are required to clean the microwaves every single day. We would have no problem cleaning a few more,” Cheerleader and ASB member Mallory Osterholtz said. 

We now understand that the administration has full awareness of the students’ struggles and the cleaning job of the microwaves is taken care of. So all that’s left to do is crack into the school funds and get more microwaves for the Vikings during their lunchtimes. If the Vikings can stress this to the administrators more and more then we will be able to see a quick change in the wait times for microwaves. The ball is in the admin’s court.