In Favor Of "Favor"?

Students and administrators disagree on whether Favor, a food delivery company, provides an efficient way to get more food options without going off campus, or if it poses a safety threat to our school. Since the enforcement against nonseniors leaving campus is more strict this year, students are trying to find solutions in order to access more food variety while following the rules.

Nonseniors have expressed they feel limited by their options and often end up not eating anything for lunch. Others, wanting more of a selection, disobey the rules and go off campus anyway.

“I just don’t eat,” sophomore Jessie Skelton said.

This poses the question, is Favor really hurting our school if it’s providing students with more options and less of a need to leave campus?

“Delivering food to campus is against district policy,” subcoordinator Ms. Skannal said. “it’s disruptive to class when teachers are trying to teach and other students are here to learn,”

Skannal’s argument applies to companies such as pizza delivery systems, but Favor runners never leave their vehicle, requiring students to only pick up their food during lunch.

When asked if they were familiar with the district’s policy against delivery systems, all students asked said they weren’t.

“I wasn’t aware that delivering food to campus was against the rules...a lot of classes order pizza to school,” sophomore Lana Alhakim said.

Administrators have expressed the concern that food delivery systems such as Favor are unsafe, and the uncertainty of unauthorized strangers coming on campus.

“How do you know these employees have background checks? It all goes back around to the safety,” Skannal said.

Upon later research, we found Favor has a strict policy which requires runners to have a “clean record”, “be screened” and “go through an intensive training program” before running. (https://favordelivery.com/apply/)

Students respond to the idea that Favor runners pose a threat to our school’s safety.

“I think it’s very arbitrary ‘cause [they aren’t] strangers, [the runners] are hired professionals. Let’s say the school hires a contractor to fix a toilet, it’s not like ‘oh he’s a stranger on campus’ he’s doing a job,” sophomore Nicholas Aragon-Maresca said.

When asked if they believed going off campus for lunch or ordering Favor is more safe, students agreed that a delivery service would pose less threats.

“Definitely ordering from Favor is more safe compared to leaving campus. That raises risks of getting in a car crash, especially downtown during lunch traffic…[Favor] just makes more sense,” sophomore Karyn Parsons said.

Mr. Machiek responded with great conviction when asked of the off-campus rules and why they’re so strictly enforced.

“This [off-campus] rule came into effect when there were several deaths on high school campuses in Austin. [One school] lost seven or eight kids in a matter of a couple years to car wrecks...I’d just like for the kids to follow the rules...I know teenagers think that nothing bad is ever gonna happen to them, but I’ve been to funerals for teenagers and I don’t ever want to attend auneral for a teenager,” assistant principal Mr. Machicek said.

Along with the safety reasons expressed, Favor seems to be viewed as a convenience that would simplify not only students, but staff’s lunch experience on campus.

“I think that using Favor could benefit students because sometimes [they] can’t bring something from home or they have tutorials during lunch so they can’t go to the cafeteria, and it’s just easy to meet someone outside, it’ll take a couple minutes to pick up your food and bring it back inside. Also, students [would be able to] eat food they actually enjoy, which means they won’t be skipping meals or just eating a bag of chips or something unhealthy...I think it definitely would keeps kids safe with better options,” sophomore Olivia Heinze said.