This year the I.C. Café and the DECA Snack Shack are gone.

The first year back on the National School Lunch Program since 2015 has brought changes to the Cherry Creek School District food services. Due to this change, it is also the first in many school years, where the I.C. Café is no longer a food option. This has become a great inconvenience for many students.

“The West café gets way too crowded during all my free periods,” freshman Nathan Eckler said.

During the 2015-2016 school year, $200,000 ran a deficit through expenditures and food waste, and in last year’s budget report around $175,000 in deficit as well. “The challenge though for us was that we were not breaking even,” Principal Ryan Silva said.

The NSLP will reimburse the school with six cents for every meal that the school sells. If half of the current student body would buy a lunch here at school, then the school will receive over one hundred dollars in reimbursements.

This year, the school saved almost half a million dollars in food expenditures by cutting the Metro Cafe and DECA Snack Shack, I.C Café’s food options, from the school, and the NSLP will now reimburse every sold meal for 6¢, and cover all reduced or free meals. This may not seem like a lot, but after thousands of meals a day, it can save hundreds of dollars. With these reimburses,the school is now able to more steadily give free and reduced lunches, for families in poverty.

Also, because DECA took over Bear Necessities, their budget hasn’t been affected in any major way.

With the loss of the I.C Café, the West café now sees bigger lines during the lunch periods of around 45 people per line. This adds to the stress of shorter periods and the ability to eat lunch.

“In general, I don’t go to West,” sophomore Matthew Allison said. “Last year I stayed mainly in I.C. It was close by and had use, and a café. I usually stayed in the middle of campus anyway,”

In early September, they started giving barcoded paper I.D’s at the entrance to the kitchen or in West 543, in order to help move the lines along, giving more time to the students, but some students are reluctant, and only a couple dozen per period have used them said Mr. Mezenko.

The I.C. Cafe is still lively and used by many.

Students there still enjoy the comfortable chairs and lively space to eat, drink and talk to their friends, or to make new ones. Some students have enjoyed the cleaner space to work and study, also to eat and enjoy their lunch, instead of using the library where you can’t eat.

“I had gotten a lot of requests from students to have a place where they can study and eat that is quieter because they can’t do that in the resource centers. They can’t do that in the library,” Silva said.

Now, the I.C. Cafe is more lively and full of people eating their own lunches rather than the Metro Cafe’s.

“I usually come here to study, during 8th period, and to eat with my friends,” sophomore Riley Dennis said.