Wilkinson County Middle School students making sure ‘No One Eats Alone’

IRWINTON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Students at Wilkinson County Middle School are eliminating social isolation in their cafeteria one lunch table at a time.

Peach State Health Plan helped 6th grade students celebrate ‘No One Eats Alone’ Day and take a lesson on being left out back to the lunch room.

“If I see somebody that’s lonely, I’ll go and say ‘how you doing’ in a friendly way,” said 6th grader Jas Robinson.

Specialists visited the school on Friday to talk to students about what being socially isolated looks like, and what they can to do stop it.

“It can be anybody, it can be anywhere, and can happen anytime–at lunch time especially,” said Peach State specialist Melissa Adkins.

Eating lunch by yourself for 30 minutes out of the day may not like a big deal, but it’s been proven to have effects on students and their performance in school.

“You’re grades suffer, physically you tend to get headaches, stomach aches, just anxiety, you know just the thought of having to go through your next day of school or wherever,” said Adkins. “Unfortunately we hear about kids every day that are taking their own lives,”she added.

6th grader Emily Donaldson says she sees students isolated every day. “Seeing someone at break or at lunch–it hurts me and it hurts them to just not have anybody,” said Donaldson.

That’s why Adkins believes talking to students about their responsibility when it comes to having a safe learning environment is necessary.

“You’re the difference between having a good experience at school or a bad one, you could be that one person that makes someone just have a good day, just by speaking, including them in things.”