What Happens in Lunch Bunch, Stays in Lunch Bunch!

We’ve all been in situations where we needed the answer to a silly question, a safe space to vent, or support from others that reassures us that we are not alone in the experiences we go through–especially in adolescence. Lunch Bunch serves as a support system for expressing feelings without judgment (with the added bonus of pizza for lunch!) Here at The Peck School, we encourage social-emotional learning by fostering an environment where students can freely share their thoughts and emotions, as we aim to strengthen their emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills.

Transitioning from Peck’s Lower School to Upper School comes with feelings of nervousness and uncertainty, and one way those jitters are eased is by participating in Lunch Bunch in the fifth grade—a custom familiar from Lower School, but now run by Upper School Psychologist Lisa Pithers!

The rules of Lunch Bunch are always the same:

1. What happens in Lunch Bunch, stays in Lunch Bunch.
2. Never use names when discussing real-life situations.
3. Consider your Lunch Bunch group to be a family and look out for one another all no matter where you are on campus!

Lunch Bunch is a safe space for kids to share their thoughts and feelings on a wide array of topics. Topics change from year to year as Pithers stays up-to-date with students and faculty, and always takes topic suggestions depending on what is relevant at any given time. Although Pithers supplies the topics, she takes a step back and lets students lead the conversation.

Common fifth-grade Lunch Bunch themes include transitioning to fifth grade, friendships/conflicts, feelings/emotions around testing, empathy and perspective, and online communication (texting/group chats.)

“The goal of Lunch Bunch is for the kids to realize that they are not alone in the issues they deal with. I want them to know they have options when it comes to navigating problems. Lunch Bunch helps them realize that they have the ability to make their own decisions and help them think about situations in many different ways, always taking others’ perspectives into consideration along the way,” says Pithers.