No more crowded lunches.

Southwest Junior High students now can eat their school lunches with a little more elbow room, thanks to a new cafeteria expansion project that opened this week.

“It’s a lot more room. It’s just what we needed,” Ali Zaidi, a freshman, said.

The expanded cafeteria is part of a $6.9 million construction project funded through the 2005 bond issue.

“It’s at least doubled the functional space that we have to eat lunch in,” said Trish Bransky, principal. “Previously, we were kind of in this fat hallway.”

The expansion didn’t affect the length of students’ lunch periods or how many are served at one time.

The rest of the construction, which includes 16 classrooms, four offices, a small conference space and another gym, is scheduled to be finished in February.

Elizabeth Walters, another ninth-grader, said she no longer has to worry whether she’s going to be able to get a spot at a table.

“It’s not as stressful,” she said.