With the start of the new school year, lots of upperclassmen have earned the privilege of an off-campus lunch pass. However, many don’t know where they can go without having to worry about being late to their third or fourth period classes.
One popular option is the ever-reliable McDonalds which is just a short 1.5 mile, eight minute, drive from the school. The main reason people tend to go to McDonalds during their break is because it is quick, cheap and good enough quality.
Another place that students occasionally visit is Taco Bell, which is also cheap and of slightly higher quality. Even though they are a “fast food” place, they aren’t fast enough for students during their lunch breaks.
“We had a pretty bad experience [at Taco Bell] because they were very slow with our orders,” said senior Talei Williamson. “Eventually we had to split up into two separate cars, and I was late to class.”
Despite the obvious allure of the quick and cheap service of a fast food restaurant, a good deal of students don’t actually go to a restaurant during their lunch— they go to gas stations.
There are two gas stations within a reasonable distance of our school, Sheetz and Speedway. Both of these establishments offer different positives as well as negatives that persuades students towards them and away from fast food.
“I feel like [Sheetz] is just something quicker to get… You have more variety at Sheetz, you can get hot dogs, pizza, mozzarella sticks, stuff like that,” said senior Jesus Cano.
Sheetz’s biggest positive is their made to order food which allows for students to order fresh food from a large selection of items, ranging from hot dogs to burritos and even whole pizzas.
Another big positive for Sheetz is the larger selection of drinks and pre-packaged snacks that they are able to offer due to their larger floor plan. Sheetz puts it perfectly on their website, “Sheetz is a one-stop solution for basically everything.”
As far as Speedway goes, the biggest factor in its popularity is the distance from our school, sitting within eyeshot from the cafeteria. While it does have a smaller selection in comparison to its competitors, being walking distance from the school is helpful for upperclassmen who don’t have access to a car.
It will be interesting to see how this trend changes and evolves during this year’s off campus lunches, especially with the increased strictness in off-campus pass checking and tardies counting against exam exemption.
