Not-so sacred caf: Covid closes CHS eatery/meeting place   

By Zabrina Chant
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     The school year 2020-2021 wasn’t like any other year. This year was different, there have been some changes and new rules. You can no longer go to the cafeteria to get breakfast or lunch, It’s closed due to COVID-19, which also means you can no longer go meet your friends there.
​     Last year, Shakira Colbourne, a grade 10 vocalist, would go to the cafeteria everyday twice a day. Shakira would get a snack for breakfast and go back at lunch because she never packed a big lunch. “I loved to stand in line with my friends," she said. "It gave us quality time together.”
     I asked her Shakira what she liked about the cafeteria and she quickly responded with: “my two favorite things from the cafeteria were how spicy the curly fries were and the soft chewy cookies.”
     Shakira now has to get her parents to buy more lunch stuff. She has to wake up a bit earlier to eat breakfast and make her lunch. She really misses eating and sharing her curly fries with her friends at lunch; it was something she looked forward to.
     Rose Basu, a grade 10 Lit student, didn't order caf meals every day last year, but when she did she was never disappointed with her food.
     “I miss getting breakfast 3 times a week and I miss sitting at the table in front of the front stage with my group of friends,” Rose explained when I asked her how the closing of the cafeteria affected her.
 

 "I loved to stand in line with my friends. It gave us quality time together.”                  -- Shakira Colbourne

    “Now that the cafeteria is closed, people have to walk seven minutes to Circle K in the cold wet weather," Rose remarked. "Last year the cafeteria was a second option, especially if it was snowing a lot or raining. Personally, I don’t like walking in cold wet weather.”
     Last year Grade 11 drama student Liam Hickey went to the cafeteria every day to buy his lunch.
     “I liked how easy it was to access, I always sat on the front stage with 8 of my friends and we made a lot of memories.”
     Liam wakes up at the same time as he did last year and eats his breakfast. Now he doesn’t eat lunch at school, when he gets off of his hour-long bus ride home, he makes his mid-afternoon lunch, which isn’t something he would normally do. He can no longer hang out with his friends that are in different classes due to the new COVID-19 rules. A few things in his every day routine changed when they closed the caf.
     Personally, the cafeteria being closed has also affected me. I used to buy breakfast and lunch there every day. Packing a lunch wasn’t as complicated as it turns out to be now. The closing has affected many students and some staff, everyone misses how last year they got to hangout with friends and eat delicious food. ​