By Garrison Sloan

Staff Writer

Since October 1st, Lake Forest Academy’s snack bar Sonia’s has been testing out new operating hours. Previously, the snack bar opened at 8:30 AM and closed at 4:30 PM, with a short, 30 minute lunch break at 11:00 AM. Now, however, Sonia’s opens at 9:00 AM and will close at 3:00 PM, while still keeping the 11:00 AM break.

According to Sonia’s manager Areli Aquino, the operating hours were changed due to a lack of demand in the late afternoon.

“We noticed a pattern where around 3:30, we stopped getting customers and only had around three or four for the rest of the day,” said Aquino. “Because it slows down this much, school and Sodexo decided to try out this new time frame.”

Feedback to the new hours has been mixed. Students mainly utilize Sonia’s to get food when they don’t have lunch periods. However, some have shown distaste for the new hours.

“I feel like they should stay open at least like 30 minutes after school ends since some people need to get a snack,” said one Junior, who asked to remain anonymous. “The only other option is the vending machines, which really don’t provide anything nutritional.”

While some students have not received the new hours well, many have  seemed indifferent to the changes.

“I don’t really care because I don’t really get stuff from Sonia’s that much,” said Junior Micheal-Aidan Mullarkey. “I guess it could affect some kids who want a pickup snack at the end of the day, but I don’t really think it changes things too much.”

According to Aquino, however, there have been little to no complaints about the new hours, and reaffirmed that if such problems arise, they could always be changed back.

“We haven’t had any direct complaints from the students as of yet,” said Aquino. “Again, this is just a test run, we could always change the hours back to what they were.”

Aquino also stated that as of now, the stated hours haven’t truly been the hours of operation.

“Typically I keep Sonia’s open for at least 15-20 minutes after the end of the school day,” said Aquino. Around that time we get a lot of people right as school gets out, and I won’t close if there’s a big rush.”

It still remains to be seen if the new hours will stay in effect, however, either way, it shouldn’t be too big of a change for the LFA community.