Who’s Hungry? Some Florida Schools Serving Lunch As Early As 9:30 A.M.

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It might seem like some schools in Florida have confused the concept of brunch. But they’re actually just serving lunch as early as 9:30 every morning.

While most schools are federally required to organize lunch hours between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., the Florida Department of Education waives those hours for certain schools each year. Which means that some students are eating lunch while most of us at work are just polishing off our first cup of coffee. According to the Orlando Sentinel, these seemingly bizarre eating schedules are arranged to compensate for school days that begin — and end — earlier. One school food director told the Sentinel that “[l]unches around 9:30 are late enough because most high schools start serving breakfast between 6:20 and 7 a.m.”

(MORE: How Parents and Principals Feel About School Lunch Regulations)

So how is this extreme lunching affecting kids? Well, apart from causing some kids to trip over the fact that they’re eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when they’d normally be eating cereal, the early meal isn’t harmful. Nutritionists told the Sentinel that it doesn’t matter when kids eat, but rather what and how much they eat. And since school officials seem to be quite sympathetic to some kids’ hunger pains, allowing them to snack in classes, the whole schedule doesn’t appear to be too rough on students.

Though it might seem odd for middle and high schoolers to be eating their midday meal around the time most college students are just dragging themselves out of bed, let’s all try to recall the joy of eating oddly-timed meals. NewsFeed, after all, still gets a thrill out of brinner (breakfast for dinner). We doubt too many kids are seriously upset about burgers and pizza in the morning.

MORE: The Life-long Effects Of Child Obesity