In between periods during a regular school day, there is a 45-minute lunch break where students get to hang out with friends, other students and sometimes teachers. However, when Oak Park High School transferred to distance learning due to COVID-19, lunchtime became a period of time alone between Google Meets and Zoom calls. But, starting the week of April 20th, virtual lunch hangouts were put in place for students to hang out with friends and teachers.

“Many students are missing their regular lunch hangouts with friends — and many of our wonderful teachers traditionally opened their classrooms for this purpose. Get back to your lunch routine and pick a day (or few) this week to “Google Meet” with some of your OPHS buddies — or meet some new ones — while you take a break and enjoy your lunch for the day,” OPHS counselor Jennifer Charrett wrote in a StudentSquare Post.

The virtual lunch hangouts are sponsored by OPHS Safe School Ambassadors. The Safe School Ambassadors’ main goal is to make OPHS a more inclusive and welcoming campus. Charrett and other teachers are leading the project along with a select group of students. There is a new schedule each week which is posted on StudentSquare with the teachers and their Google Meets codes to join the lunch hangout.

“I jumped at the chance to see my students, who I was missing dearly, at lunch. I picked Monday each week, between my classes!” Social Sciences teacher Victor Anderson said.

Anderson was part of the email that went to the entire staff where Charrett asked teachers if they would be willing to host a lunch hangout for students to connect with each other. Many students and teachers have taken part in adding this little bit of normalcy back into the day.

“I loved seeing several of my students last Monday, April 20. In the middle of the meeting, we had a “show and tell” which was very fun,” Anderson said.

The lunch meeting that will be held tomorrow, Friday, May 1, is Sr. Henning from 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.. HisGoogle Meet code is srhenningfridaylunch.