A social gathering is not official unless delicious food is involved — high school sports combined with snacks and friends leads to a thrilling time.
The snack shack’s strong aroma of hot dogs can be irresistible when sitting in the bleachers during halftime, when there are still a couple hours before the game concludes.
Carlmont’s Associated Student Body (ASB) opened the snack shacks in 2003 and had professional venders tending the games. The snack shacks are open for football games and basketball games (three quads). This year, the Carlmont Boosters decided to take over.
“ I’ve had their food, it’s really good. The parents put a lot of effort into having a good product and as a result they put out really good food items. [My favorite is the] tri-tip sandwich. That’s the one I always eat,” said Patrick Smith, Carlmont’s athletic director.
Senior Bradley Ting said, “I worked there for Distributed Educational Clubs of America (DECA) Club. I worked with another person. I just grabbed food and water and took money. Most people bought water, soda, hot dogs and burgers. But mainly, the teriyaki chicken ran out the fastest.”
Along with other schools, Carlmont uses sporting events to sell foods in order to raise money for various extra-curricular activities.
“The money made needs to be spent on Carlmont sports,” said Jim Kelly, the ASB Advisor.
For example, a student can make popcorn and bring it to a football game, only costing them about $1 to $1.50. However, if they were to purchase a bag of popcorn from the snack shack, it may range from $3 to $5. Junior Zachary Payton said, “[When] bringing food from your house, you have to package it. It’s a lot of work and too tiring.”
Nonetheless, the mindset is to be involved and spirited with what is happening — students don’t really think about the cost differences.
“[My] friends are doing it, and it is indirect peer pressure due to their influences,” junior Raffi Samurkashian said.
Some of the popular snacks served on our campus snack booth are the sandwiches. At Menlo-Atherton High School (M-A), students are infatuated with the chocolate chip cookies sold at snack shacks, while Aragon High School students cannot resist the famous nachos sold at theirs.
Hannah Grossman, a junior from M-A said, “There’s a bunch of cookies and brownies all for around $1 to $5, and drinks too. My favorite is the caramel and chocolate chip cookie. All of the food is homemade and incredibly good.”
“The nachos [from Aragon] are really mouthwatering. I favorite part is when I get to choose what toppings you want on it,” said Lauren Pon, a senior from Aragon.
With the nutrition standards for all foods sold in school required by the health, the Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 mandates schools’ cafeterias to serve lunches between the calories of 750 to 850. Schools were also informed to double the servings of vegetables and fruits. “Simultaneously tackling childhood obesity and hunger, this bipartisan bill gets a lot of junk food out of schools and a lot of healthier food into schools,” said Margo G. Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
So before all the cheering, it might be a good idea to stop by the snack area and fill up the empty stomach with some appetizing foods.
