me so hungry

Lunch is served at Hope Community from 12 PM until 12:30 PM. I have no wristwatch (or pocketwatch, for that matter), so it's pure luck if I make it on time. If at all. Yesterday I was out running errands in the morning and arrived back on campus at 12:31 PM. There was no lunch; the steam trays were empty already. The food had been taken back into the kitchen to be thrown away.

I have asked several times over the past month to be added to the list to receive bag lunches. When feasible, I try to work day labor - which pays about enough to buy a few days' worth of cigarettes and, if I'm especially fortunate, lunch as well.

This morning I leapt from bed and hobbled over to the cafeteria for breakfast. The time was 7:31 AM. The door was locked because breakfast is served from 7:00 AM until 7:30 AM.

No eggs and sausage with a side of toast, mind you, though you may be able to get coffee and a roll. Forget the hashbrowns over easy and chili in a bowl.



Some kind individual - a child, who obviously knew no better - let me in anyway. No coffee, it had already been dumped. And of course no bag lunch.

Here's another thing: if you can't get up in time for breakfast (and that's on you: there are no alarm clocks unless you can afford to buy your own), you don't get your bag lunch either (even if they made one for you). They lock the cafeteria promptly so you can't get in. They store the bag lunches in the cafeteria, even though we have a refrigerator in the men's dorm where they could conceivably store them for us. They used to do that but don't anymore. So, if you miss breakfast by a minute or more, you can't get your bag lunch until they serve the hot lunch. Defeats the purpose of the bag lunch, don't you think?