Surrey high school puts brakes on UberEats, SkipTheDishes after flood of deliveries

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – A Surrey high school is reigning in students’ food deliveries from companies like UberEats and SkipTheDishes.

Semiahmoo Secondary School decided to create a ban on food ordering services — except food delivered off school property and during lunch hour — because school administration says an increasing number of students have been leaving class to pick up food. School staff members were also apparently spending a lot of time dealing with deliveries left at the front desk, and those who bypassed the desk and wandered into the school without signing in.

Doug Strachan of the Surrey School District, says the increase in deliveries were disruptive and potentially unsafe.

“Some students were leaving classes to go and get food, pick up their food. The school took some steps to let the students know that if they wanted to make those kinds of arrangements, they could be done, just off school property,” he says. “There would be multiple deliveries coming in, and school staff have other things to do with the school administration, and yet they were constantly being presented with food by delivery people who wanted to know where to take the food.”

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Something had to be done, he says, as the increase in deliveries began to overwhelm staff and cause security concerns.

“The delivery people were walking right into the school without checking in at the office, or they wanted to leave the food at the office, and the office can’t act as a food delivery service,” he says. “Certainly we don’t want people on the school grounds or in the school without authorization or without school staff knowing that they’re there or why they’re there, and that it’s for a legitimate reason.”

Strachan said that he recognizes food delivery apps are a growing trend and the school is trying to adapt to these changes in technology and how students are using it. He hopes allowing students to still use delivery services — with limitations — will be an acceptable solution.

“It just takes a bit of adjustment to everybody, and so far, it seems this approach is working,” he says.