Special Report: School lunch times

Abby Connors, student
"Its like my favorite time of the day."

She sees it as a social break from classes

Abby Connors, student
"Lunchtime is like just like you can eat but I also like to socialize and like be with my friends and just like talk about like things."

But the talking needs to be quick. At her school lunch break is only 20 minutes.

Abby Connors, student
"Half the time I don’t even finish all my lunch."

Her mom, who is also a teacher, thinks Abby and her classmates need more down time to digest.

Mary Beth Connors
Mother
"Sometimes we just need to stop and slow down."

Mary Beth Connors
Mother
"Especially at that time your body is just… Thats when you grow, you change, you need to eat."

Peabody State Rep Joyce Spiliotis agrees....

Rep. Joyce Spiliotis
(d) Peabody
"How can we expect you know our children, we're talking about young children giving them only 20 minutes, I mean, that’s less than adults get."

Nationwide - - lunch periods for middle schools has dropped on average from 28.9 minutes in 1999 to 24.6 minutes in 2005

Many schools say that decrease is to allows more time for learning, however representative Spiliotis says lunch time is learning time

Rep. Joyce Spiliotis
(d) Peabody
"I think that lunch and recess should count as time on learning cause they're learning how to socialize with other children."

She's proposed a law requiring all schools in the state to offer at least a 30 minute lunch break and that’s something Abbys mom is in full support of.

Mary Beth Connors
Mother
"I think that would be great, I think they need it… 10 more minutes just to let them walk to and from lunch."

And that would be music to Abby's ears.